Song of Songs 2019

Listen, my beloved. Look, Here he comes leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, There he stands behind our wall gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. My beloved spoke and said to me, arise my darling, my beautiful 1, come with me.

See, the winter is past. The rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth. The season of singing has come. The cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit. For blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise. Come my darling, my beautiful 1. Come with me.

My dove is the cle my dove in the clefts of the rock in the hiding places on the mountainside. Show me your face Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. Catch for us the foxes. The little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.

My beloved is mine, and I'm his. He browses among the lilies until the day breaks and the shadows flee turn my beloved and be like a gazelle. Or like a young stag on the rugged hills. All the nights long on my bed, I looked for the 1 my heart looked I looked for him, but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city through its streets and squares.

I will for the 1 my heart loves. So I looked for him, but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. Have you seen the 1 my heart loves? Scarcely, I had passed them when I found the 1 my heart loves.

I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the 1 who conceived me, daughters of Jerusalem them. I charge you by the gazelles and by the doors of the field. Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. Keep that passage open or rather turn back to it, in song of songs. Song of songs is sort of in the middle of the Bible there.

Find that passage and let me pray. For the help us now, please, as we continue this series, looking at, this relationship between Solomon and this Schulamite woman and as we learn lessons about your love for us. Help us we pray in Jesus' name. M. Now, I guess most of us, like spring.

I guess it's probably our favorite season. I I think if you ask people what's their favorite season, spring has got to be, you know, there. I love spring. It just invigorates, you know, when the sun is out and you see the flowers and you see the leaves on the trees, you know, you suddenly feel quite live. You're coming out of the death of winter and the hard gray leaden skies that we have in this country.

It's all rather, you know, depressing really winter, I find. And then, suddenly you wake up in the morning early morning and the sun's shining and it's just It's just wonderful. Spring is a wonderful time of year and that's what we've got going on here in our next installment in this story and song of songs. It's springtime and it's springtime of love. Look at verse 11 of chapter 2.

See how he's describing it. See. The winter is past. The rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth.

And the season of singing has come. The cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit, the blooming vines. Spread their fragrance arise. Oh, come my darling.

My beautiful 1. Come with me. It's it's a very beautiful description of a spring day. And it's a beautiful description of coming into a love relationship when there's been the winter of being on your own. That's that's what that's what's going on here.

And spring is just that, isn't it? When I was looking out at the garden today and you see the birds, I've got this nutty starling back again nesting in at the eaves of our roof. He's he's mad. And it's just good watching him. He's every female bird that goes part at starling that goes past his and he's going up and down and trying to get their attention and they just fly past him and he's jilted again.

And then another 1 comes and there's fresh hope it's just very exciting to see this. And when you're in love, everything seems different. I mean, honestly, even slough is good in the spring. And if you know anything about slough, it's not good. But when you go to slough in the spring, even that looks nice.

Because everything seems different when there's the springtime of love or there's springtime. It's bathed in a new light. There's a new freshness to The leaves are fresher green and so forth. And look at the excitement that's going on. Look at verse 8.

See her in verse 8 in chapter 2. Listen. She's intent. She's listening. She's listening out for what.

Her lover, listen. My lover. Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle, like a young stag. Look, there he is.

He stands behind the wall gazing through the windows peering through the lattice. Do you see her excitement going on in this relationship? She's excited. Listen. She's listening out.

She's hearing him and trying to hear him. Listen. I'm I'm sure that's him. Look, Here he comes. See, when you're in love with someone, you you you're listening to hear their voice all the time.

You're looking out to see them. I mean, this has happened to me on many occasion, but particularly when I was first engaged to Anne, I was walking up because I always seem to see people that aren't there. I was walking up Cerberus High Street and there was Anne up there. I didn't know why she was there. I'll be at work.

Why is she there? And I'm at the bottom of high street saying, Anne. Anne. Anne. Why?

And then I'm walking and running towards and then because this woman turns around and it's not Ann. And so you have to run past pretending there's someone else. This seems to happen, but when you're in love, when you love someone, you see you want to see them everywhere, even in places where they shouldn't particularly be. And that's what's going on here. Listen, my lover.

Look, here he comes, leaping over the man. I'm sure it's him. Is it a gazelle? Is it a young stag? No, it's my man.

He's faster than a stag. He's faster than a gazelle. Look at him. And he's singing as he's leaping over the mountains, ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough.

Faint no river wide enough to keep me from you, I can hear him. Look at him, crossing those mountains. The word for rugged hill in verse 17 is a particular word. It means the mountains of Becca which means the mountains of separation. So somehow they've been separated.

Last week, we saw them in a banquet and then down lover's lane and perhaps he's been taken away because this is King Solomon on some kind of kingly official business but there's a separation that's happened between them, but no no worry. Here he is. Here he's coming. There's nothing that's going to separate him. Not even the mountains of Becca.

Not even the mountains of separation, not wind, or rain, or snow, or fire, or anything's gonna separate him from his love. He's bounding over the hills. You see him? On his journey to his love. And then when he gets there, he's He's peeking through the walls and the lattices into her chamber, into her bedroom.

He's come across the dangers of the mountain and the valleys and now he's here peaking. It's like 1 of those sort of romantic films, isn't it? Where, you know, the lover is sort of poking his head up and she thinks she sees him and is it him? I'm here? No, I'm not here.

I'm over here. It's it's all sort of silly but that's what happens when people are in love. It's that sort of romantic thing going on. Look at verse 9. My lover is like a gazelle, a young stag look.

There he stands behind the wall. Gazing through the windows, peer, it's all a bit risky, peering into her room, risky, and, wow, stuff going on here. It's very exciting. Can't you see how exciting this relationship is? You are made for relationship.

That's how you're designed. That's how you're created. The god of the Bible is not some god like Allah in the Quran. He's not an individual god who is been on his own for all eternity. The god of the Bible, the true, the living, the real god, is described as complex 1.

There is 1 god, but he's in 3 persons. There's always been relationship, father and son and spirit. And the father loves the son and the spirit loves the son and the son loves the father and the father loves the spirit and so it goes on. There has this been divine, love affair, relationship, god, the eternal god, there's always been relationship and that's why relationship is important to us. They're very important.

We're not meant to be on our own. We're not meant to be lonely. We're not meant to just take selfies. That's something called narcissism. It's when we are just gaze at our own reflection and we're taken up with nothing bigger than self.

We're meant to be taken up with something bigger than self. We were designed to be in relationship and to know none other than this loving heavenly father who is the god of relationship. We're designed for relationship. And so when relationship comes, it brings life because god is the god of life. It brings joy It takes away loneliness.

It's life invigorating. It's it's winter changing its spring bursting. It's flower appearing. It's song singing. It's sun warming.

It's fruit growing. It's lip smacking good. That's what it is. That's what relation is. Relationships is.

So Do we need to kindle? Do we need to rekindle? Relationships, and relationship with God. 1 of my favorite, singers, Bob Dylan, some of you've never heard of him, it doesn't really matter, but 1 of the favorite lines in any of his song is when he was writing Christian songs and he says this. It's always struck me.

I was in his presence talking about Christ's I was in his presence for an hour or so, or was it a day? I really don't know. See, he's been found in Christ because of relationships. Oh, was it his presence? Was it an hour?

I don't know. Was it a whole day? I don't know. I was found in Christ, not lost in myself. But found in him.

Verse 8 of chapter 2. Look at it. Listen. My lover. Look Here he comes.

She's listening. She's looking. And you see the thing about ears and the thing about eyes are that they're directed outside of the self. They're always looking out. They're always listening out All of this nonsense that's preached to our young people today that we're to look in and find ourselves within is a disaster It's not what we were created for.

We were not created for self and self love, We were created to look out. Look. There's someone bigger, someone who's got love for me outside coming towards me. Listen. There's someone outside of me that I need to listen to.

Lovers are always listening to the voices, aren't they? You know, when people first start going out, they they're on the phone constantly. Just listening. You know, sometimes they're just walking around the house and you think, what's going on? And, you know, he says she's talking.

That's what's going on, and he's listening. But not only is she listening for him, he listens to her. She he loves her voice. Look at verse 14. My dove in the cleft of of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountains, show me your face.

Let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet. Your face is lovely. She listens to him and looks out to him and he listens to her and wants to see her. That's relationship. That's relationship.

Dave Glen, who's 1 of the elders here. I don't know. I think he's he's outside doing stuff. He he does hearing tests and he's told me that there comes a point in an older couple's life. They've been together for a long time.

And he says that often, the woman brings the man into his hearing test. It's a hearing test. And, he first of all, he asked why why have you come? And she speaks on his behalf and says, well, he's he's deaf. He can't hear anymore.

And, so David does a test He says this happens a lot. David does a test on on the man, finds that his hearing is perfect. And, and then he has to go and tell them. And says, no, his hearing is absolutely fine. There's no no problem with it at and she says that can't be because he never hears me.

And then it suddenly dawns on her. And he says that that point, I stepped back. Well, I shouldn't step back. Thank you. Yeah.

That's the timing. He was timing how long it would take before I fell off this thin platform. But, you know, that's that's sad, isn't it? It's sad when you see couples But 1 time gazed into each other's eyes and longed to hear each other speak and longed to look at each other sitting in a restaurant not talking. Just gazing out.

They've become so familiar that this love seems to have gone. Now There's loads of stuff we can apply here to our relationships on a human level. And, in many ways, I'd love do that, but I'm not doing that in this series. What I'm trying to do in this, and you can apply that stuff to yourself. What I'm trying to do in this series is to show this picture of this love story of Jesus and his people, Christ and the church.

So let's apply some of this. Firstly, I want to say this. A soul without Jesus is a frozen winter. You're in a frozen winter, but a soul with Jesus is like spring. And I wonder whether you know that.

A soul without Jesus is like a frozen winter. It's so bad winter, isn't it? That animals go into hibernation. They hide. And winter for us, it's is when you you try to have sort of festivals, isn't it?

And feasts because it's dull and it's dark and you you have to try to get through the winter. I find that more and more the older I get. I have to get through the winter. Lots of people suffer from that thing called sad at wintertime because the lack of light in their eyes, and it affects us all to some degree. And therefore, you you have to pretend, you have to put on parties, you have to have fake light because there's no real light coming in.

It's a dark dingy, dull, and so we put in more parties to try to convince ourselves that we're happy and that we're having a good time. And life is like that without Jesus, isn't it? Filling up our lives, trying to party, trying to pet ourselves on the back, trying to say we're okay, but we're not, we're lonely. We're lost in a universe without a relationship with the god that we were created to have a relationship with. We're like animals in a zoo that should be in company, but they've been trapped in a cage on their own and they walk up and down, up and down, and it's horrible to see because they should be free to run around with company.

We are created to be with god and know god and know him as a father to know real friendship with a living god. We're not meant to be on our own. We're not meant to be bastards in the universe. On our own without a father trying to survive. Women to be blood family.

Loved. Listen to the difference between these 2 songs. They're both rather old, I'm afraid. 1 is from the nineties by a group called Green Day, and 1 is even older. It's an old hymn.

Listen to the difference. Stephen Rose Marmian took me to to see, to see Green Day, and they sang this song. It's their most famous song if you know anything about Green Day. And I found it actually deeply moving and quite upsetting to be in a crowd of, I don't know, there was 20000 people in the stadium all singing this song. It's very it's very sad.

It's called boulevard of broken dreams, and it was amazing that everybody chants it without listening to the words. I walk a lonely road The only 1 that I have ever known, don't know where it goes, but it's home to me and I walk alone. It's familiar. It's home. I walk alone.

I walk this empty street of the boulevard of broken dreams where the city sleeps and I'm the only 1 and I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk alone.

My shadows. The only 1 that walks beside me. My shallow hearts, the only thing that beats. Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me. Until then, I walk alone.

It's sad, I mean, Greendale are a very interesting group live because they often choose someone out of the audience or several people out of the audience to come up on stage and sing their song with them or play guitar. I wanted to be chosen. Because I would have just had a little word before the song. Because here's another song. Here the difference.

I mean, the first word, I can hardly say it because it's just it's completely different. Loved. Loved with an everlasting love led by grace that love to know. Spirit breathing from above thou hast taught me it is so, and owe this full and perfect peace, owe this transport all divine in a love which cannot cease, I am his, here's mine. See the difference.

This is this is knowing Christ. It goes on and it does it in a way that is that is spring like. Listen. Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green.

Something lives in every hue. Christless eyes have never seen birds with gladdder Sono flow, flowers with deeper beauties shine since I know as I am known I am his and he is mine. Without Jesus in your life, You're alone. You're alone in a dark, cold universe. It's always winter.

It's never Christmas, and it's never spring. You walk alone, but that's what the Jesus thing is all about. To bring us into family with god. There's a second thing though, I think we learn from this story. A church without Jesus is cold and wet We're in winter.

You know, there's there's no life there. There's no spring. There's no forgiveness. See, in a church, we're meant to forgive each other. We don't we don't hold on to things we're always hurt each other, relationships as we're going to see in a minute can be so frail.

We don't just stomp out like little children, we stay in, and we love, and we forgive and we start again and that's how we grow. That's the flower of forgiveness and it's a very very beautiful thing. But a church or someone without Jesus. There's no life. It's hard.

Christianity to them is dreary and there's no fruit and there's no color and there's no flowers. But Jesus, when he comes into our life, when he comes into our church experiences, changes everything. Look at verse 11 again. See, the winter is past. The rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth. And the season of singing has come and the cooing of doves, is heard in the land. You know, you look at doves, there's there's so Randy, to be quite honest. I mean, we we have some, colored colored doves in our garden. They only ever think of food and sex as far as I can see.

And it's the same with the pigeons. This because it's they're excited. Food. Sex, you know, what first? Which 1?

Blah. That's why the heads are going like this. Like this. It's a strange, isn't it? But that's that's what he's saying in a church that loves that forgives that has the fruit of the living Christ in their hearts.

Then you see people that forgive each other, that love each other. There's a blossoming of love. The son of righteousness has come into our church. And his warmth has grown us from the winters of dark selfishness and bitterness into love Never be like the church of Leodicea in in the book of Revelation. It's an amazing thing.

Here's 1 sentence from that church and Jesus is speaking to that church and he says in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20, here I am. Here I am. And instead of them listening for him, is that him? Instead of them looking for him? Is that him?

Is that my lover? He's a gazelle? Is that him? Is that my man? Instead of the church doing that, he says, here I am, I stand at the door and knock.

You should have been out the door welcoming me, but I'm banging on the door, and no 1 seems to be hearing You are running church without Jesus. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and eat with and he with me. It seems that they're taking communion. It seems that they're eating the lord's supper without the lord. An extraordinary thing going through the motions without priced at the center but then you'll get dry, horrible, religion, and tradition, and duty, and it'll all feel like that.

There's a third thing I want us to learn from this story, longing for the presence of Jesus. Now you've got to get this right. The lord Jesus Christ is no longer physically present in the church. Let's make sure we know that. He sits at the right hand of the father.

So he's not here physically, and there's pain in that. Because we longed for that physical relationship. And the disciples knew that. So, Jesus says in John chapter 16, now I am going. He says, I'm going to the disciples because I have said these things, you are filled with grief They love him and he's going and they're filled with grief, but I tell you the truth.

It is for your god good that I'm going unless I go the counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send him and he's talking about the Holy Spirit. So whereas we don't have the physical presence of the lord Jesus Christ, he's at the right hand of the father ruling. He sent the Holy Spirit who is the counselor who represents the lord Jesus Christ, and he comes into our heart, and he gives us a longing for being with Christ physically in that new creation. There is this longing that is in us and it's part of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

There's a fourth thing I want to learn from this story. Will you listen to his voice? The church is described as the bride of Christ and we see this woman listening for her bridegroom who is gonna come and take her off to be the bride as we'll see next week. But in verse 8 chapter 2 verse 8, listen my love and look here he comes the church hears the voice recognizes his voice listens for his voice. Speak lord, we should be asking.

I hope you prayed this before we before I stand up to preach. Speak lord your servant hears my sheep hear his voice in the pages of the scripture we hear the sweet, wonderful tender promises that sustain us and assure us from our living lover. Through the Holy Spirit book, the Bible. He's our saviour. He speaks to us through the word And we as believers need to drink with joy.

The word listen to our lover. Here he comes. It's the melody of heaven itself It's the place of the new creation where it's spring forever. There's a fifth thing I wanna get from this. Speak to him.

Let him speak to you, but you speak to him. Philippians chapter 4, a letter that Paul wrote to the Philippian church says this, have a listen, rejoice. Redjoice in the lord. Reduce in the lord always. I say it again.

Rejoice and then listen. Let your gentleness be evident to all the lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to god and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Speak. Speak to god.

Bring requests. Bring your anxiety, bring your petitions. He loves to hear. When you see spring, it's brilliant. I immediately personally feel much more invigorated winter, I have to battle through.

But this morning was a delight to get up early Even though it was a, you know, a remarkably busy week for me, but it was a joy to see the sun. I'm invigorated to see the bird. I'm invigorated by this. The leaves coming out. Every time you see those things, this week, a new flower, remind yourself of this, love We do that this week.

Don't waste the illustration that god's giving you when you see that dead looking tree suddenly there's lovely little green buds on the end. Remind yourself of Christ's love for you. And this is an opportunity to hear him and see him. So the springtime of love, that's my first point. Here's the second point.

There's a problem. There's a problem in the relationship. A problem comes in this relationship. Amazing. So a problem comes in this relationship and you know what the problem is You know what?

The biggest problem probably with almost any relationship, but the biggest problem in this relationship is the problem of comfort. Comfort. There's gonna be something that we're introduced to which is a lying little fox and the lying little fox is comfort. So obviously the scenes changed from the banquet from last week. Obviously, we're no longer in that banquet.

We're no longer under the apple tree where she was getting, you know, apples to refresh her. There's been this separation as I already said and suddenly now he comes bounding over as the bridegroom. They're gonna get married next week so the the he bounds over as the bedroom bounding over these mountains and he's very different. It's not the tender embrace under the apple tree that sustains her now. It's a bloke who can bound over mountains.

He's rugged, he's powerful, he's full of energy, he's full of life, he's got a plan. Yeah? He's done the apple tree stuff, and now he's coming as the king that he is. And the bride to be is going to be taken or offered to be taken to places. She never really intended to go.

She didn't think he would ask him to go there. Because he says arise my darling, my beautiful 1, and come with me arise my darling. Do you see that? My beautiful 1 and come with me. Now remember you may remember in chapter 1, she said take me with you.

That was her request, and now he's saying, yes. I'm gonna take you with you with you with me. Come on. Let's go. The intimacy under the apple tree, the intimacy that she that that she experienced with him that she loved and sustained her and refreshed her has now given birth to an invitation of event or or of adventure.

You see some of us want to stay just in that embrace, but you see relationships can't just stay like that. Doesn't work. It's not Hollywood. It's not just hugging and kissing constantly. It doesn't work.

There's life to be going on with, there's challenges, but there's a problem of comfort with her. She's so comfortable. It's like we love Jesus as a Savior, of course we do. We want him a saviour, but as lord of my life, taking me to places and asking me to do things in obedience that I don't particularly wanna do? He comes verse 8 and 9.

Listen my lover. Look, here he comes leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle like a young stag. Look there he stands behind the walls gazing through the windows peering through the lattice. He's not weak, he's not pathetic, and we have weak and pathetic views of Jesus sometimes.

No. He's the lord of the mountain. He bounds over mountains. Jesus wants intimacy, but he wants that intimacy to bring you to the place of fruitfulness A place of serving him come with me verse 10, my darling, my beautiful 1, Come with me and bear fruit in our relationship. See verse 11.

The winter is past. The rains are over. Flowers appear on the earth. The seasons of singing has come. The cooing of dove is heard.

The fig tree forms its early fruit. The blossoming vines spread their fragrance, arise come my darling, my beautiful 1. Come with me. Let's arise. Let's go and produce some fruit.

Come on. Let's leap back into the mountains. Nothing is going to stop Jesus and his kingdom. Not even the gates of hell will stop it. He'll smash the gates of hell down.

Come on. We're going on an adventure. We're gonna build my kingdom. We're going on a date, arise. Stop sleeping.

Get out of your bed. We're going to go to the mountains. We're going to bear fruit. The winter is gone now. Everything is ready.

The harvest is ripe. Let go. The fruit is ready. Come on. But she resists.

She goes up into the rocks and hides in the cleft of the rock. A cleft is like a sort of cut in the rock. She only goes so far, but she's afraid of the mountains. They're dark and there's valleys, and she doesn't like it. And so she hides in the cleft of the lock.

Look at verse 14 is trying to coax her out. My dove, my dove in the cleft of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, What are you doing there? Show show me your face. Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet.

And your face is lovely. It'll be great to be with me. I still love you, but we're gonna go to more difficult places now. But I'm not ready for the mountains. You're a mountain climber.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're the mountain climber, but not me. No. I wanna turn.

I wanna run. I don't wanna go into those valleys. I don't wanna go into the all places. I'm not up. I love the shade of the apple tree.

Let just take me there and let's eat some beautiful fruit together, shall we? I want that intimate experience. I love you of being my savior and my lover, but now you're asking me to do things that I never signed up for. Come, he says, come out of hiding. Trust me.

Do you trust me? Do you trust Jesus with your life? I want him as savior, but I don't want him as lord. The trouble is we've been indoctrinated and we can't help it. We've been indoctrinated in our culture from birth.

We've been indoctrinated with an easy life culture. With a comfort culture. We're addicts to comfort. The Bible would call us sluggards. We just wanna lie in We just wanna sleep.

We want food brought to us if you know the slug of proverbs in the Bible. We can't even be bothered to put our hand down to the bowl that's next to our bed. We want someone to serve us. It's constantly all about serving me in my comfort. But that's not how relationships grow.

You gotta go to the dangerous places. You gotta trust him. Do you trust him? So, really, I heard a testimony this week at 1 of the conferences that I was I was on. And It was really good the way the bloke did it.

He was saying about how he had to give up a certain lifestyle. To follow Christ and people often come to him and say, that's too much to give up for Jesus. Why are you doing this? Why would you give that up? We don't, why don't you follow us and enjoy what you are in this lifestyle?

And his his argument was just brilliant. He says, you know what? Because I trust Jesus, I found him to be trustworthy. And you want me to give up a trustworthy relationship for you who I don't know Why would I do that? You've gotta trust him.

That's what faith is. Faith moves mountains. Trust him. Come out the cleft of the rock and go. And so he warns he warns about in verse 15, these little foxes.

See verse 15, look, catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards are vineyards that are in in bloom. It's a poetic warning The vineyard is their relationship. It's budding. It's a budding relationship. It's growing.

It's in bloom. It's gonna produce fruit. But there are these damned little foxes and they need catching and the little foxes in Solomon's time were not like big foxes that you can see running around every day around our area. They're like little rats. They're like big rats really, but they're sort of big much smaller than the fox and a little bit bigger than a rat and they burrow down and you don't see them and they burrow down and they eat the roots and they ruin the roots.

And so the plant looks of orc okay but it's dead from the root up. And it's these little things in relationship and that's in any relationship. It's the little foxes that run around. You can see the big bushy tailed fox a mile off. But the little foxes that burrow down and gnaw at the foundations and gnaw at the roots are the things that are going to kill any relationship and Solomon warns her.

Look, your comforts, your little comforts. They're killing the relationship. Deal with them, he says. What is it that's stopping you trusting Jesus to take you to the dangerous mountains. What is it?

Comfort, faith, Christian faith or trust in Jesus is spelled r I s k. It always is The way you spell faith is r I s k risk. You go with him. You come out of your comfort zone, and you trust him. Be careful of comfort and trying to stay in a bland, comfortable world.

Where the little foxes gnaw away. Here's my third point. I'm trying to push on, but please bear with me. She's lost his presence, but she hasn't lost a relationship. But she has lost his presence.

We never lose our salvation, but we can lose his presence. And now we're in chapter 3. Let's just go through it quickly. She's now in bed and she's in her comfortable bed. And she's in bed at night.

She thought that was more comfortable than following him into the mountains and of course it seems that it would be. Comfortable, lovely bed, but she can't sleep. There's no real comfort there In fact, she's having nightmares. Look at verse 1, all night long on my bed. That term all night long means night after night after night.

She's having nightmares. It's not just 1 night. This is a continual nightmare, all night long on my bed. I looked for the 1 my heart loves I looked for him but did not find him. She's in bed the place of safety that she thought, the place of warmth, the place of comfort, She's certainly not going out with him into the hills at night, but she's having nightmare.

And she would be better in the hills. With her lover and protector. The comfort actually is not the place of safety in the end. She's having nightmares. She can't sleep.

We're told, and she certainly dreams. And, the psychologists will tell us that these dreams are what they call fear fulfillment dreams. She's fearing what will happen, and her dream is that he's not there. And so she gets up in her dream and runs around the barren streets. I walked alone.

I walked alone. The streets at night, there was no 1 with me. She's singing Green Day at this point. And she's walking alone, and then she even sees a policeman or a watchman, and she asks, have you seen the 1 that my heart loves and and, just around the corner, he's suddenly there. And so she warns Her friends' daughters of Jerusalem in verse 5 of chapter 3, I charge you as the gazelle and by the the doze of the field do not awaken love until it desires because it takes you over.

Real love takes you over and possesses you 4 times. In 4 verses, she she she refers to the 1 my heart loves. She's taken over. 3 times, she said, I looked. I looked.

I looked. There's this separation now bigger than the mountains that he jumped over. And she's out at night and wondering what's going on and thought she would be safe safe in bed, but actually it's a disaster for her because relationship is broken. Verse 2 of chapter 3, I will get up now and go about the city through its streets and squares and search for the 1 my heart loves so I looked for him, but did not find him. She spurned him, and now she's uncomfortable.

This is what the old preachers used to call the dark night of the soul. When you read the Bible and you didn't even know what you read when you don't feel the presence of Christ through his holy spirit through his holy word. But she doesn't just sit in there and accept it. She goes running looking and finds him. And here's my last point.

So then there's commitment. When she realizes what she's lost, and finds him where he finds her really. There's commitment. Look at verse 4, second half of verse 4 of chapter 3, I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house to the room of the 1 who conceived me. I would not let him go until we finally got committed and married That's what she's saying, which will be next week.

All of this, my dear friends, is put energy into loving Christ. Are you just got comfortable? You know him as savior, your soul is saved, and you're just sitting back comfortably? You just take it for granted? You take relationships for granted.

As soon as you do that, the foxes nibble, the foxes gnaw, and death comes to the vine. How are you doing with Christ? Are you putting energy in? Meeting with him. Looking around at the world, seeing the flowers and saying, I want this love, I want this springtime of love in my life.

Have you ever said that to him as you walk around? You trusting him when he takes you to the valleys into the hills. Don't run and hide in the rock. Come out my dove. I'm your protector.

I'm the lord of the hills. Trust me. Trust me as we walk together in life, Have you recommitted to him? Do you need to do that? Do you need to do that in your relationships as a whole?

Do you need to do that in your relationship to the lord Jesus Christ? Let's have a moment of quiet to think these things through. There's lots there, but lots of important things. How are we going to respond? What are we going to put into our lives this week to make sure we're not just comfortable?