2026-07-05 | Summer in Proverbs | A Life Fully Surrendered

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Kevin. Thanks for listening to our message. We strive each week to bring you relevant, practical, biblical teaching that meets you where you are. Hope you enjoy the message.

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Good morning. I've had a lot of time to sit with the scripture, so there's a lot of information up here. Um, this past week I found myself thinking back to my own childhood, specifically summer. Summer was probably my favorite season. Um, they were so much fun as a kid. So as I look at my kids and the joy, and as they're running around and the water guns and all the things, um, it had me thinking down memory lane. But um what caught my attention was as I got older, things started to change. Summer was still fun, and I looked forward to it, but it was for different reasons. My choices began to change on how I spent my time, and I didn't always make the wisest decisions in the summertime. Um I didn't listen to those people that were placed in my life that were trying to warn me and guard me, right, from leaving those things that leave scars on your heart. I have some visible scars, but some of them are inside. And I think that life has a way of leaving scars when we insist on learning every lesson the hard way. I can't be the only one that learns lessons the hard way, right? Okay, thank you. I was like, oh man, I'm alone. Um I think that there's some of us in this room that have learned lessons the hard way, but now you have advice and wisdom to share with others, right? Because of that. And as parents, I think the parents know what I'm talking about because we try and give our children advice as they grow. When they're little, we set these rules and they're in place for their benefit and their safety. Sometimes there's no explanation, and it is a simple, we don't do this, right? Because they can't understand and we can't have a conversation with them. Don't touch the stove, don't run out into the street. If they get older, hey, be home before dark. And sometimes the answer to that why was simply because I said so. For a kid, that's not a great answer. It doesn't make sense. And so, what do you mean I can't touch the stove? Mommy touches the stove, daddy cooks on the stove. What do you mean it's hot? What does hot mean? They find out real quick, don't they? But as an adult, we realized that our parents or our loved ones weren't trying to control us. They were trying to protect us and they were trying to keep us safe. So as kids grow and they're able to understand more, we're able to have more in-depth, right, deeper conversations with them. Teenagers and young adults, you guys are a different breed. Um, it's a different stage of life because they start to think they're indestructible, right? They think that us old folk, we don't know what we're talking about when we try to give them correction or a little bit of advice. For some of us, whether we're kids or adults, we do everything on our own because we're a little hard-headed, maybe a little bit stubborn. But then life has a way of humbling us. And eventually, if you're willing, you become teachable, right? You're willing to learn. And I think since you're here, I'd say that you're seeking the most important advice and wisdom of all. Not mine, but the Lord's. The teaching of the Lord. You're seeking his wisdom. What does he want to say to you? When you get to the end of yourself and you realize that you don't know everything and you can't do it all on your own, you get to this place where you can truly hear his teaching and correction. Not only hear it, but live it, right? You follow it. And I was thinking in the beginning of our relationship with God, we approach God's commands just like children do. We think that he's limiting our freedom when he's actually protecting our future. So today we're continuing in Proverbs. We'll be in Proverbs 3. But I want to remind you that Proverbs isn't just a list of rules. I want you to keep in mind that it is a loving father or a loving parent. And he's saying, this is how life works. I love that he is talking to a child. It's not addressed to a servant or an employee. It is a child. Right? It's not an angry King Solomon barking orders, but a father pleading with his child because he knows where certain paths are going to lead. So I hear you already turning. So if you haven't already, grab your Bible or your phone and get to uh Proverbs chapter 3. And instead of reading the entire chapter at once or cherry-picking bits and pieces, we're gonna walk through it together, section by section, and let God speak to us through his word. And I want to set the scene for you a little bit, because again, I've been digging into this for a long time. The son that Solomon is addressing in Proverbs 3 was probably around 20 years old. It's a young man standing at this critical point in his life, right? He's standing right on the edge of adulthood. The time where that line has to be crossed to move into maturity. And I know 20-year-old men, it takes you a little bit longer, right? No? So in the research that I did, it said that the age mattered significantly for understanding the book's urgency. Because at this point, when a decision must be made, the young man is most vulnerable to easy sex and easy money, for his sexual passions are at their strongest. And his tendency to be wise in his own eyes has not yet been tempered by reality. Solomon's instruction in Proverbs 3 arrives at a pivotal moment when the son must choose between competing worldviews and establish patterns that will shape his entire adult life. And this goes for all of us at every age, right? We're gonna face moments of having to make really important and critical decisions. But I just wanted to give you that backstory of Proverbs 3. Let's read verses 1 through 4. My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years, and bring you peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Notice where Solomon starts. He begins, right? He doesn't start with behavior or the functions or festivals that they need to attend, not giving or serving. He starts with the heart, right? He says, My son, keep my commands. And what's significant about verse one is the pairing of the two concepts, do not forget my teachings and keep my commands, right? The father is urging his son to not forget, but also guard the commands in his heart. And the combination emphasizes both remembering instruction and actively keeping commands. The parallel suggests that true wisdom involves both understanding God's ways, but you also have to commit to obey them. Not just mentally endorse, but you a heartfelt like allegiance. Everything begins here in your heart. So what controls your heart? Because whatever controls your heart is controlling your life. Money, approval. Maybe it's fear. What about politics? Your career, your comfort. These are all things, right? Relationships. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And I love this picture that Solomon is painting. He is saying, take your own will and wrap God's word around it. Write it on your heart until it becomes who you are. Not just the information. Let it transform you. Right? Don't just read the words, but let them shape you. Some of you have a really good memory. I have heard people talk about their third grade, second grade, fourth grade teachers, and they can quote things that they've said to them. I can't remember that, but a lot of you can. Because that teacher made such an impression on you. This right here is saying, let God make such an impression on you that you remember his word. You want peace? God. You want prosperity? God. God desires for you to have peace and to prosper. And it's not a prosperity gospel. Don't get stuck there. It's not promises of wealth accumulation, but it's what happens when you receive the wisdom. It's the consequences of wisdom. Longevity, peace, and security. Verse 2 connects obedience to extended life and peace, not to financial gain. It's a bummer, I know, because I was really hoping that it was financial gain. The scripture is saying that obedience produces wisdom's natural outcomes. There's better decision making, which means less unnecessary heartache, stronger relationships, reduced anxiety. Who doesn't need reduced anxiety? Longer life through healthier choices. Not because life became easy, but because you're living the way your creator designed it to be lived. These benefits flow from living according to God's design, not from a divine wealth transfer. The righteous may remain poor. And the wicked, those that turn from God, that don't know God, they might be rich. But the wise person, regardless of economic status, will experience the peace and security that comes from alignment with God's character. There's a quote by a theologian named Tremper Longman III. He says, Proverbs like these indicate that memorizing proverbs doesn't do the trick. In other words, mere knowledge of a proverb does not help a person navigate life well. You can know a scripture without letting the scripture know you. You can quote all the verses and still ignore God. Knowledge is wonderful, but it's not the goal. Relationship is the goal. Transformation is the goal. That leads us into probably one of the most famous verses in Proverbs. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. How many of you have those verses memorized? Okay. How many of you have heard them before? Here's a harder question. How many of us are actually living them? You don't really have to raise your hand, but just mental note. Believing these verses and living these verses are not always the same thing. Most of us do not struggle believing that God is real and he exists. We struggle believing that he knows better than we do. And that's why Solomon says, don't lean. That's active. That Hebrew word translated means to rest upon, to support oneself or to rely on. I think it translates pretty well, right? The term conveys the image of physically leaning. I'm just gonna, maybe I don't fall. I'll lean. So physically leaning, putting your weight against something for support. Okay, so transferring my dependency onto this podium. The weight behind Solomon's words, I need you to see them. Because it's two forms of dependence: leaning on the Lord versus leaning on your own understanding, right? It's directional. You will lean on something. The question is, what bears your weight? Because you're not gonna lean on something unless you know you're not gonna fall, that it'll hold your weight, right? So leaning means transferring your weight onto something outside of yourself. That's simple. We got that. You're admitting I can't hold myself up on my own. Solomon could have said, listen to the Lord, believe in the Lord, but instead he says, lean not on your own understanding. He doesn't command blind obedience or he to make emotional decisions, which I love to do. He describes a posture of dependency. So just as a person physically leans to distribute, distribute their weight, the wise person distributes the burden of decision making and life navigation to God rather than bearing it slow solely through personal judgment. Right? Because without the support, the external support, you'd fall. And I don't think God is telling us to stop thinking or to ignore the wisdom that He's given us, but He's saying, don't make your understanding your foundation. There's gonna come a point if it hasn't already, in every single one of our lives, where we have to admit, God, I don't have all the answers. I can't see what's around the corner, and I don't know what tomorrow holds, but you do. That's what it means to trust the Lord with all your heart. It's choosing to place all of your weight, the whole weight of your life, on Him instead of trying to carry it all yourself. So this week I was like, we're all leaning on something, right? Maybe it's your career, maybe it's the money in your savings account, certain relationships that you have. I think some people lean on their own intelligence or experience. So the question isn't whether you're leaning, the question is what are you leaning on? Because what you're leaning on is what you're trusting to hold you when life gets heavy. My chair. You don't even have to answer, because I know you do, you're all sitting in one, right? It's not saying I trust the chair to hold me, it's sitting there and resting back, just like all of you are. You're not on the edge of your seat thinking you're about to fall. You're back, you're relaxed, and you're waiting for me to finish. That is trusting. Trust is resting. Faith always has weight. If we say we trust God, where are we resting? So when we trust God, our values begin to change. Verse 6, there is another word that is used in place of submit in a lot of translations. The word is acknowledge or recognize. In the Hebrew, another pretty well-translated word means to know in the deepest sense, not merely intellectual awareness, but an intimate relational knowledge. This isn't passive recognition, but an active acknowledgement that involves both your mind and your heart. So, how do we get that kind of knowledge? Just like this. You pray. You talk to him. Not just on Sunday mornings, but at home, before you start your day, before you end your day, in between, if you need to go into the car for a minute, wherever you are, the bathroom at school, maybe. Well, if you're in the bathroom at school, don't do this. But right here. So it's showing and telling how we approach life's direction. To acknowledge or recognize God means to know Him through experience, relationship, and submission, which we do not like to do. Acknowledging God isn't just saying, God, I know you're here. It's saying, Lord, I want you to lead me. I want your wisdom to shape my decisions, your voice to direct my steps, and your will to become my will. I think sometimes we treat God like our emergency contact. When life falls apart, we call on him. That's where I found him. But Solomon is saying, in all your ways, don't just bring God into the big decisions, bring him into those small ones, because life, a life of wisdom, isn't built on one big decision. It is built on a thousand small ones. Right? Made with God right at the center. And then Solomon gives us an incredible promise. He says, He will make your paths straight. As you acknowledge God's presence and his authority in your decisions, he actively corrects and aligns your direction. The straightening isn't passive, it's God's active intervention reshaping your direction. Think of a toddler or a baby when they're starting to crawl or starting to walk. How many times do they just take off? And we pick them up, we turn them around and put them back on the right path. God is doing the same thing for us. What's my point? The beauty of this verse lies in its realism about our limitation as humans. A person cannot determine their own path or direct their own steps. We think we can. I thought I could. And later, if you're reading the Bible recap, the prophet Jeremiah, he'll affirm that. Whether than uh fighting against reality, verse 6 invites you to leverage it by consciously recognizing God's role. You position yourself to receive his guidance. The straightened path emerges not from your superior planning, no matter how good you are at planning things out, but from your willingness to acknowledge. That true direction comes from beyond yourself because we naturally lean on ourselves, right? Our own feelings, we have our own opinions, definitely have our own plans. So why should you surrender your plans and your future, your decisions, right? Your life. Why should you surrender them? Solomon answers it. Verse 11. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father, the son he delights in. Let's be honest, none of us like correction. Come on, you guys, really? Amen. Thank you. Nobody enjoys hearing you're wrong. We don't like discipline. It doesn't feel good, especially if it's God that's disciplining us. But Solomon is saying, don't despise it, don't resent it. That changes it. Solomon's not saying God disciplines you when he's angry. Or he's trying to get even. God's correction is proof of his love, right? God disciplines because he loves us. And that's what loving parents do. If I saw one of my children running right into traffic, I'm not just gonna sit there and think, well, they're gonna learn a lesson. Right? Love wouldn't just stand back and watch. It's gonna intervene. Love would correct even if they get upset. Because that's what it looks like to protect them. God loves us too much to let us keep walking towards destruction. Sometimes the greatest evidence of God's love isn't that he's leaving us alone, it's that he refuses to. And when and if the Holy Spirit is convicting you, or when he convicts you, don't ignore it. Don't resent it and don't write it off as some kind of coincidence, but thank God for it. Because conviction is one of the clearest signs that God is working on your heart. Correction is not rejection, it is proof that you are loved. Hebrews 12, the writer quotes these verses from Proverbs. He reminds us that earthly fathers discipline their kids for a little while, but our heavenly father disciplines us for good, so that we may share in his holiness. So no discipline is going to feel good in the moment. It's gonna hurt. But later, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. And I don't know about you, but when I look back over my life, some of the moments that I grew the most were not when everything was going right. They were the moments that God was lovingly correcting me, redirecting me, and refused to let me settle for less than his best. Then Solomon changes the picture. He starts to talk about treasure. He says, Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her. Silver, gold, and rubies. And he is saying that wisdom is more than all of that. Think about our culture. What do we spend our lives chasing? Money? Success? What about recognition? Power? Comfort. We all want to be comfortable. We want the bigger house. We want the new car. The next promotion. And none of those things are necessarily wrong, but Solomon is asking a deeper question. What do you treasure most? Because whatever you treasure, it's going to shape your life. We said earlier Jesus says the exact same thing. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If someone looked at your calendar or your bank account, what about your text conversations, your internet search history? What would they say you treasure? Would they say it's Jesus? Or would it be something else? Verse 16 says that long life is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and honor. Notice the order. Riches are secondary. And we tend to flip it around. We think if we just had a little more money, we'll finally have peace. And God says, seek wisdom first, because wisdom teaches you how to live regardless of how much money is in your bank account. Because a wealthy fool is still a fool. But a wise person, whether they have a little or a lot, they know the peace that comes from walking with God. Then Solomon says something incredible. He says, By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations. Why does he jump to creation? Solomon wants us to understand that wisdom isn't just good advice, but it is woven in creation itself. Think about gravity. We don't vote on gravity. We definitely don't negotiate with it. It's not like you wake up in the morning and you think, gravity no longer applies to me. We live according to it. And if we don't, we're gonna suffer the consequences. God's wisdom is the same way, it works the same way. He designed this world and everything in it. Marriage and family work. He designed generosity. What forgiveness should look like, that was God. Every part of life. Living wisely isn't God trying to control us. He's inviting us to live according to the way that He created life to work. And when we fight His design, we create unnecessary pain. When we trust His design, we flourish. Not because life is perfect, but because we're finally living the way that our Creator intended for us to live. And here's what's beautiful: when your heart belongs to God and your greatest treasure is God, something begins to happen inside of you. You stop living in constant fear. You begin to experience something that our world desperately needs. Do you know what it is? Do we need more money? Or do we need peace? Peace. Verses 21 through 26. I'll read them quickly. My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight. Preserve sound judgment and discretion. They will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked. For the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared. I don't know about you, but these verses almost feel like Solomon just stopped and took a deep breath. Up until now, he's been talking about trusting, about wisdom, discipline, and treasuring God. But now he's telling us if you do all those things, this is what happens. This is the kind of life that it'll produce. Safety, grace. There's no stumbling, no fear, a sweet sleep. The Lord himself by your side. Doesn't that sound like something that our world is desperate for? I'll ask you another question. When is the last time you slept through the entire night? And I don't mean because you were so exhausted that you just passed out and slept. I mean because your mind was at peace. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because you lay your head on the pillow, but your mind keeps running. You're thinking about the bills, your marriage, a diagnosis. Maybe you're thinking about your kids, your future, your job, all the what-ifs just start playing through your head. You might be lying down, but you're not resting. I think anxiety has become one of the greatest battles of this generation. We've become experts at carrying things that God never asked us to carry. And Solomon says, when you lie down, you will not be afraid. He doesn't say you're never going to have problems. He didn't say your life is always going to be easy. He doesn't even say bad things won't happen to you. He says you won't have to face them alone. Look at verse 26. For the Lord will be at your side. Do not miss that. Our confidence isn't found in perfect circumstances. It is found in God's presence. Because that's where the peace comes from. We know that peace is not the absence of trouble because Pastor Eric has taught us about peace before. It's the presence of God in the midst of the trouble. Think about Jesus. When the disciples are on the boat and they're in the middle of the storm, right? The wind is raging, the waves are crashing into the boat, and where was Jesus? He's sleeping. Some of us moms, we know what that's like. We just we sleep. He's sleeping, and the disciples are freaking out. He wasn't sleeping because the storm wasn't real. It was very real. He was sleeping so soundly because he knew his father was still in control. The storm outside did not determine the peace that was inside of him. What if that's what Solomon is inviting us into? Not a life without the storms, but a life where God's presence is greater than our fear. I've learned something over the years. The things that steal our peace are usually the things that have not happened yet. The lost sleep over conversations that haven't happened yet. Or the worry about an outcome that I can't control. We imagine worst case scenarios that may never come. We spend today carrying tomorrow's burdens. And Jesus addresses that too. He says, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Ain't that the truth? You guys, tomorrow has enough burdens of its own. We don't need to borrow them for today. God has given you enough grace for today, and he'll give you enough grace for tomorrow. When tomorrow gets here. And I love how Solomon ends the section. The Lord will keep your foot from being snared. It's not that there aren't traps because there are. It's not that the enemy isn't trying to trip us up. He is. But when we're walking closely with the Lord, he sees the things we cannot see. He guides us around the dangers we never knew were there? How many times has God protected you and you didn't even know? How many prayers has he answered that you're never going to know about until you get to heaven? How many doors has he closed because he loved you too much to let you walk through them? Sometimes God's greatest blessings are the things he never allowed to happen. And here's what happens when someone truly trusts God. When they treasure him above everything else, when they've learned to rest in his presence, it doesn't stay private. People around you, they start to experience it too. Because wisdom always changes the way we treat other people. Let's finish the chapter together, 27 through 35. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, come back tomorrow and I'll give it to you when you already have it with you. Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully trustfully near you. Do not accuse anyone for no reason, when they have done you no harm. Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways, for the Lord detests the perverse, but takes the upright into his confidence. The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. He mocks proud mockers, but shows favor to the humble and oppressed. The wise inherit honor, but fools get only shame. Look where Solomon has taken us. He started with our heart, then he talks about our trust, then our treasure, then peace, and now he's talking about your neighbor. And that's not by accident, because when God changes what is happening inside of you, it always changes what comes out of you, right? Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And isn't that exactly where Proverbs 3 has led? A surrendered heart learns to love like God. Wisdom always shows itself. You can't hide genuine wisdom. Eventually, people experience it. Solomon doesn't say, go memorize more verses, which do go memorize more verses, but it's not what he says. He says, do not withhold good, don't delay generosity, don't go scheming against people or accusing them falsely. Don't envy wicked people. In other words, if God has your heart, your neighbor should be able to tell. Because surrendered people come, they become generous people, honest people. They're faithful, they're humble, they're peacemakers. Not because they're trying harder, but because their heart has been changed. Have you ever met someone who just made everyone around them feel safe? They weren't perfect, right? They didn't have to be a rich person. They probably weren't even famous. They just loved people well. That's wisdom. Verse 34, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Why does Solomon end there? Because pride is the one thing that destroys everything he just built. Pride says, I don't need God. If you did the reading this past week, think of Edom from the reading. Humility says, I can't do this without him. Pride leans on itself and humility leans on God. See what Solomon just did. He brought us all the way back to verse five. The whole chapter comes full circle, and I love it. So as I was preparing this week, I'm almost done, I promise. Okay. I couldn't help but think about something, right? Every single one of us walked into this room carrying something. Mine was a backpack. So it's heavy. And you may not be able to see what's inside of it, but you can tell there's weight, right? And we're gonna say, since we rested in the chair, we're just gonna say right now it's Jesus. So my kids, I asked them, whoops, I asked them, what weighs you down, right? What is it? Okay, that's gonna stay there. Let's see what they wrote. Insecurity. I do not have a problem taking a phone away. Com control anxiety. What about fear? Some of you have been carrying fear for a long time. What about control? Some of us, I think, are exhausted because we've been trying to control things that only God can control. Approval. Some of us have spent years trying to earn acceptance from everyone around us. Money? I think some of us are convinced that if we just had a little bit more, we'd finally have peace. And this one might be the heaviest of all. Pride. Because pride keeps whispering, you've got this. You don't need anyone else. You can do this all by yourself. Right? Figure it out all on your own. That's it. That's all the rocks I got. See? It's empty. Isn't it amazing how heavy life can become when we're carrying things that God never asked us to carry? So earlier I asked you to help me with my mic. That's what I said. Earlier I asked you about the chair. Right? I asked if you trusted it. I really didn't need your answer. I knew the answer was yes because you sat in it. You put your weight in it. You rested on it. Trust isn't saying, it's resting. It is laying everything that is inside your backpack at the feet of Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Some of us have spent years leaning on our own understanding. And trust isn't adding Jesus to the weight, it's handing it all to Him. Your plans, your feelings. Your success, failures. And what happens when we carry it around? We're exhausted. Because we were never designed to carry the weight of our own lives. And here's the gospel. Every one of us has leaned on the wrong things. Every one of us. We've trusted ourselves, we've ignored God's wisdom, we've walked our own way. We've done exactly what Proverbs warns us against. But you know who didn't? Jesus. He perfectly trusted the Father. When the Father said go, he went. When the Father said wait, he waited. And when the father sent him to the cross, he obeyed. Perfectly. Every single time. And then he did something that none of us could ever do. He carried our greatest burden. Not fear, not money, not pride, not control, our sin. He carried it to the cross. Why? So that we wouldn't have to, right? Jesus never asks you to carry what he's already carried. He asks you to trust him with it. That's the invitation of Proverbs 3. Not try harder. Not you need to be smarter. Not go memorize more verses. The invitation is so much simpler. Surrender your heart. Because when your heart belongs to him, your trust changes. Right? Your treasure is different. Your peace is different. Your relationships are better. Everything changes. So trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Whatever you've been leaning on, it's time to lean on Jesus. So maybe you've been carrying the burdens that were never yours to carry. Maybe you've been leaning on your own understanding for a lot of years. Maybe you've never truly surrendered your life to Jesus. I don't know. Or maybe you're a believer who simply needs to trust him again, to rest like you're sitting in the chair right now. That comfortably. That assured that the bottom's not going to fall from underneath you. Wherever you are this morning, the invitation is exactly the same. It is come, trust him. And he is strong enough to carry whatever, right? To carry the things that we cannot carry. So I know we did invitation to prayer already. But if any of you feel like you're ready to lay whatever it is that you have in your backpack and you're ready to lay it down so you can fully rest and feel his peace and his comfort, I'm gonna invite you to do something very uncomfortable. I'm gonna invite you to come to the front and just lay it down. We don't need to have a conversation. We don't need to talk about what it is because it's between you and him. No judgment. But if there is something that is weighing you down, come forward and just spend a minute with him and surrender it. Take your time. Jeremy will strum. Is that what you call it? Strum. And I'm gonna pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your word, God. Lord, we thank you that we can turn to the Bible, we can read the words that you have given us. Father, that we seek your wisdom above all else. Lord, I pray for every single person in this room if there is something that they have been carrying that you do not want them to carry, that it was never intended for them to pick up. Father, I ask that you give them the wisdom to lay it down today. Jesus, that they release it to you and they do not pick it back up and leave with it, that they feel your peace, God. Lord, we seek you more and more every day. I just ask that you keep revealing yourself to us. Give us your wisdom, God. Help us be your people that love our neighbors well. That transformation, God, help us experience what that is if we haven't already. Father, we are your people. Teach us, God, how to go, how to love. Amen.

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