Turn with me this evening please to Proverbs and chapter 15. Proverbs and chapter 15. A good number of you know that I love the book of Proverbs. I love its practicality. I love its spirituality. And I could very easily be inclined to preach from it more often than I do. I think there's a danger with the book of Proverbs that we can almost treat them like fortune cookies. Here's a little bit of folk wisdom to guide us through the next steps. It's vital to remember that this is the word of God in which we are instructed as to how to live righteously in the present evil age. I'm going to concentrate this evening on the 19th verse of Proverbs 15. The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for that great and saving wisdom which you have made known to us, to bring us to yourself, to keep us near yourself and to send us for yourself, that we may live and serve and love and care in such a way as to bring glory to your name. Our Father, teach us even this night how to serve you well, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I imagine that everybody is very well aware of the difference between walking on a firm, clear, level path and forcing your way up a hill through brambles, ferns and thorns. It wasn't so long ago a few of us decided we would go and enjoy God's glory one Lord's Day evening. We drove out toward Leith Hill, I think it was. We walked up. The path that we went up, I still assure you I knew exactly where we were going, but we had to force our way over a few roots and through a few ferns. Coming back, we took a nice, pleasant, straight, well-packed path. We know the difference that makes to our attitude. Again, there've been situations, not always my fault, again, I've been involved. I know there's a trend that seems to be developing here. I remember going on one holiday where people were offered the choice between a short walk and an intermediary walk. And I think there was a long walk as well for the really keen ones. It turned out that the intermediary walk, for which I had absolutely nothing to do, was longer than the long walk and left those who thought they were getting the fairly robust but slightly easier option in a great deal of weariness and distress. That's hard when you're walking under those circumstances, forcing your way through obstacles. Your attitude is affected, your progress is affected. There's a great difference between a way that is blocked up painfully and a way that is clear and open. Now, those two ways symbolize two approaches to life here in Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 19. And the contrast is strong, and to some extent it is surprising. The way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright, a highway. It's good for us to think about this in the light of A-level results, GCSE results, the fact that some of us have been on holiday, we're going to be going back to work, the fact that some of us will be going on to new courses or changing classes or whatever it may be, but it's not simply, as we've said, a matter of practical usefulness. It's instructive in terms of the surprising element of this contrast, that it doesn't say what you think it might. The way of the lazy is a hedge of thorns, but the way of the diligent, that's what you might think, but it says upright. Now that tells us something about uprightness and it tells us something about laziness. Do you recall how our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 speaks to one of the servants who didn't do what they could and should have done? He calls him a slothful and wicked servant. He puts laziness and wickedness together as if they are closely allied, if not precisely the same thing. Laziness is a moral issue. And then you notice, on the other side, that almost by direct implication, uprightness would include diligence. But uprightness, straightforwardness, righteousness, this is a comprehensive declaration of a good life. So laziness has wickedness as a root. Uprightness is more than diligence and industry, it also has a moral quality. Laziness is the fruit of a corrupt heart. Uprightness is the revelation of a heart that is right with God. And we're going to simply look at these two different elements. We'll contrast the life of hedges and the life of highways, the experience of the lazy man and the experience of the upright man, and then look at some of the ways in which we should take that to heart in our life here. So the lazy man lives a life of hedges. The way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns. His life is full of barriers. Now he exaggerates the real ones and he imagines the ones that aren't even there yet. Whenever it comes to some good way, Whenever it comes to some worthwhile cause, whatever he pretends or desires to pursue, whatever he would like you to think he is like, whatever he might actually wish that he could eventually attain, he always sees and faces a problem. The lazy man is a man who sees obstacles everywhere. Everything for the lazy person is an issue. One of the things you can tell him by is his spirit of constant complaint, because everything is against him and nothing works out for him. Everything is unfair and unreasonable. The teacher wasn't particularly helpful. The boss at work isn't a very nice person. The colleagues are not ideal. The environment is too difficult. The examiners didn't set the right questions. Whatever it may be, work or play or school or whatever, there's always a reason why there is an obstacle in the way. The lazy man also creates Problems. And he often creates them by his own laziness. Have you ever been in a situation where you look back and think, if only I'd done that three months ago, I wouldn't be in the problem that I've got now. If I'd been diligent then, I wouldn't have problems here. My friends, laziness returns to haunt us. It leaves undone or underdone things which then become to hinder what we would like to do. So, for example, I was having a conversation with somebody else about exams earlier this week, and the comment was made that most of the foundation for exam success is well laid, not in year two of the two-year program, but in year one. If you put in the hard yards early, the later yards are easier, if not easy. But if you're careless and thoughtless at the beginning of the process, when you then want to build on what's gone before, you actually don't have anything left to build on. A lazy man creates problems for himself. What he sows becomes a hedge of thorns in his way. A lazy man makes excuses. He perceives problems that make him fall back or turn back. Now, in my experience, the thing in which a lazy man is most diligent and inventive is in concocting excuses why you shouldn't expect anything of him. He's very little use for anything else, but in terms of producing reasons why you shouldn't expect very much, the lazy man is a stellar performer. He is an excuse maker without parallel. The lazy man resents exhortations. He doesn't like where they come from, he doesn't like how they're delivered, he doesn't like what they say. To him, everybody who offers something is harsh, ignorant and unreasonable. You would never say that to me if you understood what kind of life I have to live and what kind of pressures I have to face. The lazy man avoids difficulty. He wants shortcuts and lower standards. The hedge is in the way, it's too high, it's too wide, there has to be, it's like the, what was the, is it the bear hunt? We're going on a bear hunt, we can't go over it, we can't go under it, we can't go round it, something of that order. Long time ago since I last read that one, but that's how the lazy man approaches all his problems. He turns back whenever something is difficult or costly. As a result, the lazy man neglects his opportunities. He cannot see a way through. It's a hedge of thorns. He cannot find a way through. It's a hedge of thorns. He certainly can't make a way through. I mean, come on, it's a hedge of thorns. You don't expect me, do you, to cut through these difficulties. Everything that he faces only confirms his convictions and prejudices that he's never meant to go this way in the first place. There are just too many obstacles and barriers. And the lazy man suffers sorrows because his way is like a hedge of thorns. His laziness results in his own calling being torn up. His vocation, his service from God gets shredded. His character is destroyed. People start to know that he is going to be a complainer and a waster and a shoulder sloper. That's what I remember in one workplace. He's a shoulder sloper. What do they mean by that? As soon as you try and rest anything on his back, off he goes and it just slides off onto somebody else. The character of a lazy man gets ripped up because his way is a hedge of thorns. and his prospects get torn apart. Nothing that he plans ever comes to full fruition because it's always too painful, too difficult, too hard. There's too much in the way. Now, notice that the problem that the lazy man has is not first and foremost his life situation, but his heart disposition. The way of a lazy man is like a hedge of thorns. It's certainly like a hedge of thorns to him. There's just too many obstacles and barriers in the way and no one should ever expect that he should be the person who should make his way down such a path as this. And even when he tries to, he finds that the fruits, if you can put that way, of his own indolence and sluggishness always come back to haunt him in terms of work undone, half done, badly done, and his own reputation suffering on account of his poor attitude to the opportunities that the Lord God has put before him. Everything ends up in his thinking and feeling and acting twisted and troubled and torn. And you do not have to walk very far in our society until you find the lazy man whose way is like a hedge of thorns. You can go into almost any workplace and find it reasonably well stocked with lazy people whose way is like a hedge of thorns. You can go into most families. One of those things where you sort of say to somebody, you go into a group of friends and you say, who's the lazy one here? And everybody points at the same person. I'm not deliberately pointing at my son here. probably safer than pointing at anybody else. But in families, you find that one. It's hard to galvanise. Everything's a problem. They're not interested in investing. You'll find churches well stocked with people to whom all of life is like a hedge of thorns. and you'll find hearts that are crippled with the spirit of laziness, to whom all of life is like a hedge of thorns. And the book of Proverbs, the teacher in this case, is very blunt, very unvarnished, very clear. The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns. That's the kind of statement that should make me and you look at the life that we are leading, look at our place at home, at church, at work, in society, among our neighbours, examine our own hearts and say, how do I perceive my way? What is it like for me to go through this world? And then there is this strong and surprising contrast, which almost lifts the matter, elevates its moral tone. By contrast to the lazy one, whose way is like a hedge of thorns, the way of the upright is a highway. And again, you know almost instinctively what it is like to be walking through the undergrowth, perhaps lost in a field, making your way through tussocks and hillocks and bushes and whatever else, and you finally find your way to a style or a gap or something, and you break through into a proper road. And at last, everything seems a whole lot easier. You can stretch out, you can walk, the ground rises to meet your feet, as it were. There's no obstacles, there's no difficulties. The way of the upright is a highway. Now this uprightness at least speaks to a certain kind of honesty and integrity and straightforwardness. If you're going to sort of make it a more natural virtue, that's how you would describe it. But I would suggest to you that there is typically much more to it than that. In Proverbs chapter 4, verses 25 and 26, you're introduced to this concept. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil. Here uprightness has the same kind of motif about it. Look up, look clearly, see what's going on around you. Determine to walk in the right way. Look straight ahead. Let your eyelids look right before you. Think about the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. The established way is the highway, this clear way. It is the man or woman of God who is walking by faith in this world. So in what sense, then, is the way of the upright a highway? Well, first of all, the upright man can discern what is right. He has a measure of understanding. God has given him some sense of what is good and pure and right and true and proper. He is a man whose eyes are before him, whose eyelids are on the road. who is seeing clearly the path that he should follow, as a man illuminated and instructed by the Holy Spirit. Now the upright man is not just a man who avoids wickedness, he is also a man who shuns foolishness. And you might say, again, there are moral elements here. My point in making that fine distinction, again, you could go back to Proverbs chapter four and look at the positivity. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil. The upright man does not only avoid what is outright wickedness, He also shuns what is foolish, what is unwise, what is contrary to the right course. He chooses wisely what path he takes. And there's even a sense in which the writer may be telling us that the upright man's path becomes plainer as he takes it. You ever found that when you're walking? I think this is the right way, you say, looking at the map. It's a bit difficult to tell at this point, but I think we go down that fork there and then take the left as it goes off in that direction. And maybe at first you're a little bit tentative, but before long the path does open out, it does get clear, it's like, right, we must be on the right way, this really looks like a proper path now. And there's something in that for the upright man. There may be points to begin with where we're slightly tentative, where we're perhaps to some extent feeling our way. But as we go in the right course, that right course very often becomes clearer and clearer to us. Many of you here will have heard pastoral counsel from me which boils down to this, do the next right thing. Take the next right step. What about the steps after that? I've got no idea, because I don't know where you're going to end up with the next step, but I can see what the next step is, can you? Take the next right step. And when you get there, take the next right step and you'll build momentum and you'll see that path becoming clearer before you as you act in righteousness as one crying out to God, O Lord, show me your way. Let your word, to use the language of Psalm 119, be a light to my path and a lamp to my feet. The upright man, first of all, is looking for and discerning what is right. That's what determines the way that he will go. Then, brothers and sisters, the upright man does not only discern what is right, but he delights in what is right. Now, that doesn't mean the way is always easy. Morally speaking, it may be a clear path. In terms of our experience, we may still need to fight along it. But it means that we have a clear conscience, despite what may be the discouragements, the difficulties and the disappointments. Perhaps there's something in this of the exhortations or the counsels that the commander of the army of the Lord gave to Joshua when Joshua was appointed as the leader of the people of Israel. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left. that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. My friends, there will be challenges, there will be difficulties, there will be disappointments and griefs on the right path. But do you not know by experience the peace that passes understanding that comes from knowing that you are in the path of righteousness? It's not saying you always get everything right, that you're the only man with wisdom and everybody else has got it all wrong, but to know that you have determined the path in dependence upon God and that you are seeking to honour Him and it lifts the heaviest of loads, the fear, the guilt, the confusion. the path of the righteous man is made plain and straight for you. You can go happily along the right way. It's such a relief to be acting as a man or a woman in the sight of God, acting in the fear of the Lord, being strong and of good courage, meditating on the Lord day and night, determining to do what is right, and delighting your soul in what pleases God. so that even if the whole world leaves you on that path, you will have on it a true companion, communion with the God of heaven by Christ through the Holy Spirit. So the upright man, his way is like a highway. He discerns what is right, he delights in what is right, and he does what is right. You've got to walk down the path. you've got to take the right way. And the upright man, once it is clear what is the will of God, goes vigorously in that path without holding back. He doesn't imagine, create, or declare some kind of obstacle. He depends upon the Lord and he is strengthened in the way. Again how many times have you or I been persuaded that something is right and we've been held back from the path by fear and if in the grace of God we have been enabled to start moving And perhaps we've imagined the ghosts and the ghouls and the hobgoblins and the challenges and we've worried that maybe somewhere down this path, righteous though it is, we'll face troubles that we cannot overcome. You are strengthened as you go in the right way. And everybody is going to tell you all the disadvantages and the difficulties. Christians can be such wet blankets sometimes, even when we know that something's right, we tell each other all the terrible things that are likely to happen. But the upright man has a path like a highway. God is pleased to uphold our spirits as we go. And sometimes those shadows melt away. At other times, we are guided safely through them. The righteous man, the upright man then, does what is right. He does today's right work today. Is that you, Christian man, Christian woman? You boys and girls who profess faith in Jesus Christ. Whatever your hand finds to do, you do it with your might. What was the right thing to do today? Have you done it? What will be the right thing to do tomorrow? Have you taken it up? What was the right thing to do last week? I've got a little card sitting on top of my desk. It's been there so long, I memorized it once and now I think it's just burned into my brain. But one of the things it talks about is works left undone that come back to haunt you. And the way to get out of the haunting is to get on with the job and to make it happen. Can I ask, is there some right thing that you have been putting off? It might be some moral duty. It might just be some particular responsibility. Are you getting on with what God has given you to do? The upright man does today's work today and then he builds on it tomorrow. Do you look forward to your mornings? Do you ever wake up and think, I wonder what the Lord has for me to do today? I wonder where he'll take me. I wonder where he'll send me. I wonder what opportunities he'll give me. I wonder what people I'll be able to speak to. But by what means will God help me to glorify his name today? And if you've been walking on the path of uprightness, that momentum, God willing, begins to develop, rather than a life that is marked by cowardice and compromise, where you're invariably taking the easy way out, or just falling back, or holding back, or turning back, because, oh, it's a hedge of thorns. No, you start to get into the habit of walking righteously and you find your path to be, by God's grace, a highway. You take your duties in hand and you take your opportunities in hand, seeking the blessing of God upon them. And so, As an upright walker, you find your way a highway, and you make progress, and you get toward where you are going day by day, sustained by your God, acting with conviction, with courage, and with confidence. Now, do you know anybody who walks like that? The man I first think of is Jesus Christ. Have you noticed, and if you haven't, may I encourage you to read any or all of the Gospels again, even with this in mind. Our Lord's unerring walk through this world. Do you notice the points at which people say things to him like, shouldn't you be doing this? You think of one of his earliest interactions with his disciples when he's healed Peter's mother-in-law and he goes out to pray early in the morning and the disciples go to find him and say, what are you doing? Everybody's looking for you. Do you remember our Lord's response? In essence, What does what everybody else think and want have to do with me? I've come to do my father's will. Do you ever see the Lord Jesus, as it were, at a loss for words? He's not just a man who's always chatting. He's not got the gift of the gab. He's not a man who just fills space with his own pointless noise. But it seems that whatever situation he's in, where the comforts are needed, or exhortations, or rebukes, or challenges, or instructions, when do you find your Lord at a loss for the right words? When he comes across situations where there are people who are suffering, where there are people who are sorrowing, where there is confusion, when do you ever find him wondering what to do next? When he reaches the most difficult and challenging parts of his pathway, does it ever look to you like our Lord Jesus has come up against a hedge of thorns? Or does the life that is represented to us in each of the four Gospels not look to you at every point like a highway? Our Lord never misses his step, does he? He never seems to be unsure which way he should take. In communion with his Father, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, with his heart full of the truth, as a man of constant prayer and sometimes special seasons of prayer, our Lord's way through the world is sure-footed. God honouring, so that again and again and again he is able to give you the secret of the upright man's life on the highway of holiness. I have come to do my Father's will. When does our Lord ever shirk his responsibilities? When do you ever hear an excuse drop from his lips? When does he ever complain that it's too much, it's not fair, it's too hard? My friends, he groans in spirit at points along that right way. There is even a point when the prospect of what lies before him on the path of uprightness so grieves and distresses his soul that he cries out to his Heavenly Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. And so your Saviour and mine takes the next right step, and the next right step, and the next right step, and the path of the upright carries him all the way to the cross of Calvary, where with that unerring direction, he lays down his life for his people, trusting in the promises of his God and his Father, and seeking both in duty and in opportunity to glorify Him in all things. When I look at the life of my Saviour and yours, Christian, I see in the highest possible sense that the way of the upright is a highway, and I'm reminded that the way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns. Now in what three spheres we'll look at this evening, what three spheres should we apply this strong and somewhat surprising contrast? First of all, this is true with regard to gracious salvation. It's true with regard to gracious salvation. I want to be careful here because I'm not suggesting that the righteous man earns favor by going in the right way. But the way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns when it comes to finding the God of mercy. Are you making excuses about why you haven't come to Jesus Christ? Are you perhaps creating, inventing, or imagining obstacles that are stopping you going to Jesus as the Saviour of sinners? It is heartbreaking. In some ways, this happens more often with people who know a great deal than it is with people who are hearing the truth of Jesus for the first time. but the invention and imagination of issues as to why you cannot trust in Jesus Christ, why you cannot be sure, why you cannot know, why this particular doctrine or that particular notion seem to be in contrast one with another or in conflict one with another. Sometimes it's the guilt of a conscience. This stops me and I haven't done this and I feel like that. Beware that behind some of those things does not lie a spiritual laziness. I want to assure you this evening that when it comes to the path between a sinner and the Saviour, there is no hedge of thorns. Don't imagine one, don't invent one, don't say I can't get to him, I can't get round this, over this, under this or past this. My friends, Jesus Christ invites you to come, if I can use that sense of it, straightforwardly, honestly and humbly. If you will go to him, you will find him. There's nothing in between you and Christ that is in any sense needing to be an obstacle. Christ has cleared the way for you to come to him. Don't put problems where no problems exist. Don't listen to the threats, to the insinuations, to the suggestions of the evil one. Don't be inventive and diligent in creating reasons why you cannot or should not come, especially why you cannot or should not come just yet. The habit of putting off coming to the Saviour. This is true with regard to gracious salvation, that the way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway. Acknowledge your sin, consider Christ in all his saving beauty, come to him, trust in him. Take each next right step. This is true also with regard to Christian service. Now you will not be surprised to hear me say that a lazy Christian ought to be a contradiction in terms. And it's therefore a challenge when you see believers who are not serving as eagerly and as readily as they might. All of us, I think, know how easy it is, even as Christians, is at least not right at the moment. You know how hard it can be. Even when you can see what is right and you know what is right, there's a genuine need. It is written plainly. But we aim at little and we accomplish little because there can still be a root of laziness in our hearts. That language is too hard. Now I'm not saying that you, perhaps if you're a preacher, you'd say, yeah, don't like that bit, don't like that bit. There are times, I think I've said to you, where I've had to pause a portion of God's word he's talking about. But I hope that if I paused for, say, three or four minutes yet, is there something in it, perhaps, in teaching? Always a hedge of thorns. I don't know enough. I'm not a good speaker. It's not the right time for it. I'm sure there are other people who could do it better. Think of our witness as a church to Jesus Christ. I'm sure there are people out there who are far too clever for me. They'll be able to out-argue me. They'll be able to scare me. I mean, some people can get very aggressive these days. My friends, could it be that a lazy spirit is seeing a hedge of thorns in the way? What about when you need to encourage somebody? We're not all easy to encourage, are we? Some of us are inventive with regard to our miseries. What about rebukes? What about when we need to deal lovingly, humbly, graciously with sin in one another's hearts? People who don't appear very thankful for the investments that we make. People who aren't very inviting with regard to some of the things that we need to speak about. Doesn't your way get very thorny under those circumstances? My instinct is to see the way as a hedge of thorns. Brothers and sisters, the way of the upright is a highway. It's not even like a highway, it is a highway. The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright, that is a highway. That doesn't mean we tramp down it in size 12 hobnail boots, regardless of what's taking place upon it, but in terms of Christian service, can you discern what is right? Do you delight in what is right? And are you doing what is right? Would that change my life and yours at any particular and significant point? If so, let's take to heart the words of the wise man, that the way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway. And the last thing I would speak to is what I'm going to call sanctified success. Sanctified success. And I want to call it sanctified success because too many people, even Christians, become a slave to success in this world on its own terms. They give themselves to the pursuit of things that are not worthy of the concentration that ought to be given to God only. Work can become an idol. Salary can become an idol. Academic success can become an idol. And to those of you who are going to be going back to GCSEs or A-levels or heading off on degree courses, those of us who are going to go into workplaces either tomorrow or looking for jobs, those of us who have come back or will come back from another holiday and will go into our work environments, those of us who are going to go home and there's work to do, Even something as simple, boys and girls, as cleaning the kitchen, emptying the bins, tidying up your bedroom. The typical pattern in God's world is that the way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns and the way of the upright is a highway. How do you typically get good grades? Well, you might say, oh, well, there's a guy in my class, he's just a genius. There's a girl who gets straight A's. She doesn't even need to think about it. God's just put a, you see, you can spiritualize it, can't you? God's just put them together in a way that means they've got the brilliance, they've got the energy, they've got the strength. It's all laid on a plate for them. How do you typically make progress in your studies? It's not when your way is like a hedge of thorns. It's when you discern what is right, when you delight in what is right, and when you do what is right. What about in your employment? Who are the people whose character and calling gets torn up? It's the lazy ones. Who are the people who find that the path is like a highway? It is the upright, it is the men and women of integrity and honesty. Think about it with regard to your marriage, if you're a husband or a wife. Is it all too difficult? All these investments, the graces that need to be cultivated, the virtues that need to be exercised, the investments that need to be made. What about parenting? Why do we have problems when our kids are five? It's our laziness when our kids were two. Why do we have difficulties when our children are 12? It's because it was a hedge of thorns when they were five. My friends, do you see what is right in your household, in your marriage, in your parenting, in your care of your home? You know what the scriptures say. You can tell the vineyard of a lazy man because everything's broken down. What does your home reflect about your attitude to work and your care that God has given to you in this world? It's easy, isn't it, to tell ourselves that everything is a hedge of thorns. There are jobs that I loathe from the very depths of my being because I'm not good at them and I don't like them. but they don't go away for all of that. What do our households physically reflect about our attitudes, even down to those chores that God has given us to do? How do you live? The Bible gives you two options, basically, with regard to every aspect of life in God's world. The lazy man lives as if he is hedged about by thorns. He's always pulling back, turning back, falling back. He can't find a way through. Everything is difficult. Everything is unreasonable. Everything is painful. He makes no progress. But the upright man goes as if on a path that is plain and clear. Not necessarily easy. It's a straight gate. It's a straight path. It can be hard to press up, but the direction is plain. I'm not exhorting you this evening to get your act together, to sort your life out, to whip yourself into shape, and to make sure that you live some picture-perfect, pin-clean life where everybody sees neatness and excellence and sweetness and perspective and proportion, and it looks like a beautifully polished outside. and it's mucked up and messy within. The goal of this is not to have us put on some kind of performance. It is, brothers and sisters, to walk in the fear of the Lord, in the small as well as in the great, that whatever we have an opportunity or a duty to perform, that our concern will be to discern what is pleasing to our God to delight in that which he says is good and right, and then to do it, trusting in God for the outcomes. To begin is to go to God as a sinner and ask him to wash away your sins, to set you right, to elevate your character so that it becomes more and more like that of Jesus Christ. and then to go in his way and to find God's blessing in it. May God enable us to live the life of the upright, a life of highways, and not to accept the life of the lazy, a life of hedges. Amen.