Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

Please sit down, turn to the book of proverbs, or they'll come up here. We've got 4 proverbs to read from Proverbs chapter 12, and this is a way of trusting in the Lord and not leaning on our understanding by hearing his word together. So, Proverbs, we're gonna read Proverbs 12, verse 4, verse 9, verse 14, and verse 27. Okay?

That's all we're gonna read. And I'll tell you, as we get to those verses. So, verse 4, are you listening? Yep. Starts off a wife.

So that means all you women need to listen or wives at least. A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. Verse 9. Better be a nobody and yet have a servant them pretend to be somebody and have no food. Verse 14, from the fruit of their lips, people are filled with good things.

And the work of their hands brings them reward. Verse 27, the lazy do not roast any game. But the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt. Wow. Looking forward to this.

Good morning. Good morning, everyone from me. Welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Ben. I'm a trainee pastor here at the church.

I haven't roasted any game, unfortunately, not even for church lunch, but there is a hot pot of sausages being cooked. So that that's what's going on. I'm just gonna pop this up. Slightly. Yes.

And they all look a bit strange, don't they out of context, but we'll see them tied together hopefully today. And praise the Lord more as a result. Let me just pray again for the Lord's help as we open up these passages. Father, thank you for the Book of Proverbs. Thank you for the wisdom that we find in them.

But lord, without your Holy Spirit, we won't understand them. We'll read them, but we won't recognize what they mean. We won't be able to apply them to our lives. And so we ask for your Holy Spirit's help. Would he speak through me, would he open our hearts and our minds, open our ears that we might hear, what you have to say in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay. Last week, if you were here, we were looking at the proverb like a gold ring in a pig snout. Is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. And we were looking at the fact that a gold ring is a beautiful jewel It's something that has a lot of value, and it really doesn't belong in the snout of a pig. And you need to get sort of nice clean emoji, pig snout, pictures out your mind, because that's quite a clean pig snout.

But, you know, pigs, they're they're moving through the dirt, their own muck, with their snout. It's a horrible, filthy place. And we were looking at it in the same way, God's made you and his image. You're precious to him. You're like that gold ring.

You don't belong in a pig snout. So, that's what we were looking at last week. You don't belong in the snout of the pig. Well, if that was a sermon about where you don't belong, this morning we're going to see where you do belong. Where should this gold ring, this precious jewel Where should you belong?

And that's what we're gonna see. And to get there, I actually wanna start today by by talking about the love of the father for the son. The love of God, the father for God, the son, and we'll get to you. Don't worry. It's not all about you.

But we're gonna start off with the father's love for the son. Where Where does the father love the son? How does the father love the son? And just let yourselves be taken up by this a little bit. First of all, the father has loved the son for eternity past.

For all of eternity past, going back and back and back and back and back, if you can talk about eternity in that kind of way. The father has loved the sun, and he's never stopped loving the sun. In all of eternity past, God, the father has lacked nothing because he's had the Lord Jesus Christ. How amazing is this? An infinite God, an infinite God, has been satisfied by the beautiful lord Jesus Christ.

The father has loved the son for eternity. There's enough in the sun to satisfy and occupy and take the mind of the father up for eternity. The father has been loving the son eternally. And that love has spilled out into this into creation, because all things we read in the scriptures are made for Jesus 1 Corinthians chapter 1, says that in verse 16. For in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth visible, invisible, where the thrones or powers are rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him, and for him.

This is all for Jesus. This is like the father's love letter to Jesus saying, I love you. I want to glorify you I want to honor you, and so he makes all of this. I love you so much, son. Galaxy.

Solar system, so much of this universe that we can't even imagine or see, is all for Jesus. Everything here microbiology going on in our guts right now, digesting our breakfast, that we might have energy that we can hear the word of God and love the lord jesus Christ. That is all for him, the love of the father in eternity past. Wait, has spilled over into creation. To say, look how much I love you.

It's all for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the father's plan is to bring unity to all things Under the Sun, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9, he made known to us the mystery of his will. This is God's will. What is it? To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Do you see the love of the father for the son? Eternally loved in the past. Everything made now for Jesus, and everything in the future brought under unity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Past, present, and future, the father is just loving the son. That's what he's doing, principally, before all other things.

Before he enjoys making the rainbow, he has love for the sun, he wants to make the rainbow to show love to the sun. And the love that we have in us, is then it's just an echo. It's just an expression of this love that the father has for the son. It flows from this amazing never ending love from the father. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 says, dear friends, let us love 1 another.

For love comes from God. God is the source of all love. And so Love is poured out from God onto Jesus and then onto us. It's a great picture in the old testament of anointing someone with oil. And priests and kings would be anointed with oil, and it was a way to set them apart, to sort of bless them.

And the oil was first poured over the person's head, and then it would sort of flow down onto their body. The same oil that was flowing down the body had first been poured on the head, In the bible, Jesus is called the head of the church, and we're his body. And so the picture is God's selfless, other scented love for Jesus. First is poured on Jesus, and then flows down to us. That is the love of the father for the son.

Now then, in view of all of that, What principally does it mean to be made in the image of God? Have you ever wondered that? God says, let us make mankind in our image. Well, God's a creator, so we're creative. Yeah.

God's a relational try unity, so we're relational beings. Yeah. Fine. But could it be that before all other things, The thing that makes us most like God. The thing that we reflect most beautifully and perfectly about God is that we love The Lord Jesus Christ before anything else.

Could that be what it means, most purely to be made in the image of God? John Owen, here you go, Puritan, thought so. He said this, if you can understand this old English. Hearing consists the principal part of our renovation into his image. Nothing renders us so like unto God as our love unto Jesus Christ.

For he is the principal object of his love. In him, does his soul rest in him? Is he always Well pleased. In other words, we are never more like God and who we made to be like them when we love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is all just an introduction to explain why the great purpose of the church, why God has made us is to be the bride of Christ.

That's why the church is the bride of Christ. We're betrothed to love Jesus. And to adore him and worship him and serve him forever, to treasure him, to know him That's why the father has made us, not just to sort of bow in fear and reverence and I can never know you, but to be the the the wife, The bride of Christ. This is song of songs, Chapter 6 verse 3, maybe the most beautiful verse in the bible. I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.

The church belongs to Jesus, as his 1 and only wife. And he belongs to the church as her 1 and only husband. And so, We know that this wife doesn't belong in the snout of the pig. So where does she belong? Where does this jewel of Jesus belong.

Well, Proverbs chapter 12 verse 4, we read it, a wife of noble character, is her husband's crown. And so this is my first point this morning. The church is the crown of Christ. The crown of Christ. This is just magnificent this is, because a crown is the most beautiful jewel of all.

You might recognize this if I showed you this. This is the centerpiece of her Majesty's crown jewels, and this is called the Saint Edward's crown. Apparently, it was made in 16 61. It's solid gold. It's 2.23 kilos.

So imagine 2 sort of big sugar sacks on your head, if you're wearing it. It's decorated with 444 precious stones, and the queen says it's so unwieldly. She can't sort of move her head once it's on. So if she's doing a speech, she has to do this, to be able to read it. Because if she does that, then it just falls down onto her lap.

But there is no item of jewelry, really, that you can set more jewels into than a crown is there. There's nothing more ornate or glorious than a crown. It's the thing that adorns even the most glorious and honorable part of the body, the head. So, it's the best jewel on the best part of the body. And it's displayed 360 degrees.

So, if you want to show off to people, if you want to show off look how beautiful this jewel is and this how beautiful this thing is to me. You lift it up and you put it on your head. And here we read, Proverbs chapter 12, A wife of noble character is her husband's crown. And I think you can tell this most clearly at a wedding, can't you? So I know a lot of us here went to Steph and Bennett's wedding.

Couple of weeks ago, or maybe you can think of another wedding that you've been to. I think we see this most clearly there because when the bride walks in, and everyone turns around. And then you see the moment when the groom sees the bride, and it's always very emotional moment. When Bennett or Stephanie, He was just beaming. He was like, this is the most beautiful thing in the world to me.

I love her. Look how wonderful she is. Look how beautiful she is, and I bet if he could have done, he would have picked her up and shown her to the whole world. There's a great picture of Will Smith doing this to like Jada Pinkett Smith. And I copied that at my wedding with Kerry, says, a wedding picture of me doing this.

Just sort of presenting Kerry. Like, look how wonderful she is. Look how beautiful she is. How proud Am I of her? And it's amazing, isn't it?

It's at a wedding, it's the bride that makes the whole wedding beautiful. The groom sort of turns up and he looks okay for once in his life, and smells okay once life, but it's the bride that makes the whole occasion really beautiful. Now, what I struggle to understand is why on earth Jesus would delight so much in us? How is it that as beautiful and magnificent as the Lord Jesus Christ who's taken up the affections of the eternal father, eternally? How could we bring anything that might adorn him or cap him off somehow?

Bring him more glory than he had before. I don't really understand. And yet, his wife of noble character is his crown. And we see that the other 3 problems that we read, I think our ways that we adorn him. And that we do bring glory to him.

So here we go, here are 3 proverbs, 3 ways in which the church, you and I, can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, according to to the scriptures. The first 1, better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. In other words, the wife that knows her need of the husband brings him honor. The wife that knows her need of Jesus brings him honor because she knows really that she's nobody without him. She knows that she needs things in her life that she can't muster up herself, She needs nourishment and sustenance, and she can't do these things.

She's dependent upon a servant. And we know that the lord Jesus Christ came as the suffering servant. He said, I've not come to be served, but I've come to serve. And he washed his disciples feet, which was a lowly and sort of servant only job. To show how he'd come to serve us.

And the pharisees, they pretended that they didn't need a servant. They rejected a servant because they thought, I don't need it. I am a somebody. I'm not a nobody. God loves me.

I do things that please God all the time. And yet, when Peter found out that he needed his whole body washing, he said, Jesus, don't just wash my feet, wash all of me. I need you that servant. You are a servant that I need. The wife of noble character knows her need for her husband.

And that brings glory to the lord Jesus Christ. Her weakness in herself, her dependence upon him is actually a crown on Jesus' head. It's a bit counter intuitive. You might think that people you're most proud of in life are the ones that stand up on their own 2 feet. Look at my child, looking at him walking, so proud of him.

You can walk without me needing to hold him. But Jesus is the opposite of that. You're a crown to his head, when you admit your weakness and your desperate need for him. So be a nobody. It's that's the only time today you'll hear that said, isn't it?

Let's be honest. Be a nobody, don't be a somebody. Second thing that brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, from the fruit of their lips, people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them rewards. So, fruitful lips, bring Jesus glory, and they are a crown upon his head that adorns him and brings glory to him. And fruitful lips, so when a lip is fruitful.

It's been at work first. In order for a plant to bear fruit, An awful lot of stuff has to have happened first. Can't just go to a patch of earth and expect there to be a a pear on the floor. You have to work the ground. You have to dig the ground.

You have to get rid of all the weeds, and this is the thing that your lips have to be doing sort of figuratively. You've got to dig the ground, get rid of the weeds, you've got to prepare it, you got to plant seeds, which is the word of God, is what Jesus tells us. And then you have to water it and care for it, nurture it, Sometimes you have to prune it, take stuff off it. Sometimes you've got to sort of chop it back a little bit, Sometimes it feels like with our words and our lips, we're just weeding in people's lives. We're sort of taking out the the weeds without focusing on the thing, but it's all part of cultivating fruit And can't just have 1 phone call with someone and expect there to be fruit at the end of it.

Like, why aren't they a Christian? Why aren't they growing in their faith? You wouldn't expect that for a chili plant. Why do we expect it for for people? Jesus after all, we spent 3 years with his disciples.

Planting, watering, cutting back. No. Cut back that. No. Cut that back.

No. I'll cut that again. And eventually, but the Holy Spirit helped. There was fruit. And sometimes having fruitful lips means not saying anything at all.

If you've got your bible open, this isn't a verse we read, but you can take a look at verse 16. It says, fools show their annoyance at once. Think we all know that to be true, but the prudent overlook an insult. So, what was the first word out your mouth yesterday when that explosion went off? Or if you stub your toe.

What's the first word out of your mouth? Or if someone aggravates you, you know, you you just get used to being with family and they're annoying and they have little quirks and things that they do. I left the My sister came over to stay recently and that we we put an air bed out for her with a duvet. And I Kerry said, but, Ben, can you put the duvet away? And I didn't do it for a few days.

And then Kerry's getting annoyed at me yesterday. What's the first word out her mouth? She's a fool. She's not in here. She's doing youth work.

So I can say that. No. I was the fool in that instance. But but our families aggravate us. We do things that are annoying to each other.

And, look, if you're if you're quick if you're quick to show your annoyance, then you're a fool. That's what the proverb says. You're a fool. If you feel like you always have to say something in response to an insult, You're a fool. Holding your tongue is part of bearing fruit.

And there's a really beautiful expression in in in 1 Samuel that someone once showed me a long time ago, which I had forgotten about, actually, until I was prepping this sermon. It's really a beautiful passage. It said, the Lord was with Samuel as he grew, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. None of the words that Samuel spoke fell to the ground and were just trampled on or or were disposable or wasted. All of them had purpose and were at work and in the end produced fruit.

Those kinds of lips are a crown upon the Lord Jesus Christ's head. And the third 1, The lazy do not roast any game. I like this 1. But the diligent fee on the riches of the hunt. I think this is just a fantastic proverb.

And, it's a little similar to the last 1, in the sense that there is a fruitfulness in life that only comes as a result of working hard. And being committed to something. So reading is a good example of this, isn't it? We all know reading to be a bit of a slog sometimes. Trying to get through a book.

But once you do it, you feel great about it, and you feast on it, and it sort of fed you, and it fills you, and it spurs you on, and it grows you, but it's hard work to do. Sometimes getting through a book, unless you're an avid reader, in which case, something else that you find difficult, But in the same way, you can only really enjoy the the fruits of roast, beautiful roast game after you've done an awful lot of work. So, game is an undomesticated wild animal. So if you want to go and roast some game, you first got to go and catch some game. And to catch the game, you need to know where the game lives.

What time of day the game comes out? You need to know what bait is gonna attract it. You need to know what equipment to have to catch it. And then once you know all of that, you then got to have the skill to go and get it. And then once you've got it, you've got to prepare it somehow.

You've got to like drain the blood, you had to take the organs out, you had to hang the game up for a few days maybe. And after all of that, all of that effort, you then got to light a fire and sit next to it spending hours roasting it beautifully. There's an awful lot of work that goes into roasting game. This isn't just cracking a lid off a pot noodle, sticking it in the microwave. When you'd feel a bit hungry, you can't be bothered with the game, pot noodle.

Instagram is a pot noodle. The next time you're on Instagram, and you're just killing half an hour, you just pot noodling. Say that to yourself. When it comes to to to books, actually, when it comes to books or roasting a bit of game in terms of investing in understanding and knowledge. Maybe just ask yourself, here's a bit of practical advice.

Maybe just ask yourself, what is it that I wanna know more about? What is it that would really interested me and grow me in my faith. We haven't all got the same interests. That's fine. But what is it what is it that I'm interested in?

I'll give you an example. This last summer, I looked into baptism. Because I was thinking, why do some churches baptize infants and other churches don't? What's going on there? I didn't really understand.

And so, read a number of books, looking at both sort of perspectives, and it wasn't just an academic exercise. Actually, I found it really heartwarming. To see the reasons why we we baptize different people. And why Christians hold such strong convictions on both sides? And the thing about roasting game is that it doesn't just feed yourself either.

If you could roast a beautiful bit of game, there's more on there than you can eat, And so, I've been carving bits off this baptism bit of game and just offering it to anyone who wants to listen. Anyone who wants to listen about baptism. We always talk about baptism. You have a bit of game and you go, I roasted this all summer. It's beautiful.

You become a blessing to other people when you roast some game, but the lazy don't bother roasting any game. And as a result, they miss out on the fruitfulness. And the joy that comes with being committed to something. The wife that roasts game is a crown on the head of Jesus. But maybe you spotted problem here.

Maybe you think, actually, I'm I'm actually I actually sometimes do think I am somebody. And I kind of forget the servant sometimes. Maybe you think, actually, yeah, my lips are really unfruitful. I'm not often at work cultivating pruning, watering, or sowing. Actually, I'm quick to show annoyance.

Maybe you don't roast much game. Maybe you're on a pot noodle diet instead. And you might be thinking, how on earth can I be crown of Jesus Christ if I haven't got that noble character that adorns him? If Jesus put me on his head right now, would he wear me proudly or would he be covering bits up? This is my second point.

A disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. Chapter 12 verse 4, a wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. Now, this is the polar opposite of a crown. This isn't something that brings outward honor and glory and beauty. This is an inside rotting aching, weakening, decaying, And if the story of the bible is about Jesus belonging to his wife, then she's a disgraceful wife.

She has pretended to be somebody who doesn't need him. She's quick to show her annoyance, her words pierce like a sword. She doesn't roast any game, And if she does, then it's just for herself and not to be shared with anyone else. And to be honest, this is us. This is what we're like.

We are betrothed to Jesus. We are made in the image of the father to love him, to be his bride, to treasure him, and to enjoy him, but we've abandoned him, and we've run off with the world instead. I think just look at this world. As you walk from here to the hub, just look at this world, and look at the buses that go by and the adverts that you see on the side of them. Maybe even the messages on your phone that will start to ping in.

This this school that we're in, if you look at the notice board and there's the things that that are around, where is the fear and the knowledge of the lord? It was all made for him, All of this world is for him. It's meant to be a love letter to him, to exalt him, but where is his name is exalted? Where is his name treasured in this world? Is he exalted in your heart?

Do you display that noble character that he shows off and goes, look farther. Look how beautiful they are. I don't think I do, to be honest. But notice this, what does the wife become when she disgracefully rots the bones of her husband? What changes there to her status with him?

There's none at all. A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. So, the disgraceful wife remains the wife because of grace towards her, because of his commitment to her, he's not gonna leave her, he's not gonna forsake her, he's not gonna abandon her, no matter what she does, And actually, Jesus takes on a whole another meaning to this proverb, because not only are we just an ache to his bones sort of metaphorically, but he takes on a decaying human nature, and he comes into this decaying human world on a rescue mission to stand in place of his disgraceful wife on the cross. He is disgraced and he is rejected, and he is beaten and flogged and nailed to a cross where his life decays away. Because his disgraceful wife has become a decay in his physical bones.

Who on earth are we that the father would send this son that he is principally past present and future, loving to die in our place. Who are we that he would do that? Well, Psalm 18 says, he has brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. And so Jesus, the 1 that, who all this is for, delights in you so much that he's willing to decay in his bones in order to rescue you.

He will sink into the grave to save you from it. But actually, that isn't the end of the story as you Hopefully, well know, because Psalm 16 says about Jesus, you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful 1 see decay. The father won't let the son see decay, and though even though the disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones, the father's not gonna let Jesus see decay. It's amazing. The bride is redeemed because of the cross, but Jesus is also raised.

There's k in his bones, but the father won't let that decay happen. And, so, he's raised, he's raised from the grave, and they can be reunited again as they were meant to be, And then, just to just to finish with, look at this amazing, amazing passage in Revelation chapter 21. What is the result? What is the end of us? The jewel that has disgraced the Lord Jesus Christ, but we see it here.

1 of the 7 angels who had the 7 bowls full of the 7 last plagues came and said to me, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. He's gonna show us. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain, great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, It shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel like a jasper clear as crystal. And so look at the wife now. Look at the wife after the Lord Jesus Christ died for her and raised again.

Look at how she crowns the head of Jesus now. She's this precious jewel again and she's clear as crystal. There isn't spot or blemish in her. If you look at her, there's no angle, you can look at her where there's a blemish. She's the perfect crystal diamond.

And the father is walking her down. Do you notice it's coming out of heaven coming out of heaven from God. The father was sort of sending her it away. Which is why it's beautiful at a wedding that the father walks the bride down the aisle and presents it to the groom because that's what the father does to us. And he presents we turn the corner and Jesus sees us, he goes, wow.

Isn't she beautiful? And he wears us as if on his head to show us off the universe. And that means you. If you're a Christian, that means you, you are the redeemed washed saved wife of noble character, not because you're noble, but because you trust in the servant. Who makes you noble.

We are gonna adorn the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are gonna enjoy him as his bride forever and ever. So Where does this ring? This jewel belong? Not in the snout of the pig? It belongs on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how about roasting some game whilst we're here? Why not get into roasting game? Yeah? Ditch the pot noodle. Cook some game, commit to the church, and cut some of it up and share it with your brothers and sisters.

Or get work planting and watering with your words. Or best of all, why not start seeing yourself as a nobody if you think you're somebody? Pete. Well, fantastic, wasn't it? Helpful stuff.

But we need the law to help us and so we're gonna pray. So let's bow our heads and pray. Father God, we thank you You are a lover. You're not some distant God that doesn't really care what happens. You're not a God that spin alone in all eternity like Allah.

You're a God that is a triune God that at your center is love, love for the sun, for the spirit. We thank you that the father as we've seen, delights, loves, glory, reliches and loves the sun, for all eternity, before the creation of the world. There was a love affair going on. There was a heartbeat at the center of the universe when it was made. Love love, a father loves the son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you for those truths that we've seen so wonderfully and so clearly. And we thank you that we've been made in in your image, that we may be lovers, We would love and we would see the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him. We ask you, please, to help us. Individually, corporately as a church, we would be Jesus lovers. That we would encourage each other to love the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we come up against each other, when we naturally hit into each other and perhaps even cause each other pain, genuine pain. We pray that you would help us in those circumstances to love the Lord Jesus Christ. The 1 that's been sinned against and the 1 that's sinned, there would be forgiveness as we look at the Lord Jesus Christ together. Help us as a church, to be known to be people that have been with Jesus and we love him. We love him.

Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters that are going through difficult time and there there are some. We've got COVID, that perhaps they're watching online now and and it's it's hard even to concentrate because their minds are in and out. They feel so sleepy and so heavy minded, and we've got people we know that battle with depression and darkness that comes into them And we pray, please, that those brothers and sisters would, in that dark times, see something of the light of the love of God for Jesus, and Jesus love for them, that you would brighten up their darkness with helping them to meditate. On the love of Jesus. Help them, we pray.

We pray as well for for ourselves here. We pray that we wouldn't be independent people. We pray that we wouldn't be wanting to be somebody. We pray that we would be a nobody. We pray that we would delight in being a servant, even to the people of God.

Even to the lowly people of God, it would be a joy for us to be not a bigwig, but someone who serves because we've been served by the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us with our our lips. So easy for us in this age. To just flash out, to type something up, and be angry. And Lord, we fail.

We are like a firework, we explode sometimes. Just at the at the little little spark underneath us. And there's an explosion. Forget us of that. Help us to be more mature than that.

Help us to grow away from that. Help us to have fruitful lips. Help us to learn that we would be not only learning wisdom, but actually in our actions. We'd pray this sermon wouldn't just be slotted in the sermon file, in our brains, nice, good stuff, I like that illustration. But actually, lord that you would grow this on our lips, and in our hearts.

Forgive us when we're so lazy. And we know that laziness really is a very bad thing. We look people, we look at lazy people, and we actually don't like it. And yet in ourselves, we can be so lazy. And not committed to the hunt and to enjoying the riches of fair in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Help us. Father help us with questions or issues that we've got to perhaps say, okay, I'm not a reader, but I'm gonna have a go at reading. Give us a discipline in our lives, that we would be able to just taste that game and not be still shoving a pot needle noodle in a microwave, tasting bland, insipid, ungodly food, really. Never growing. Still on baby milk.

Never growing to meat. And a strong meat that we may be able to share that with others. Help us in all of this we pray, all of the things we've heard, we don't want to go away. Hearing and not changing, looking in the mirror and not doing anything about the spot. So help us we pray.

Father now we come to The Lord's supper, and we're so grateful for this, that you've left us this very simple symbol Very simple, that just reminds us of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to us. And it is what we call the Lord's table, all a welcome, who come a no that they are nobodies, and are served by the servant of the lord, who died for us, shed his blood for us, that we may be forgiven, that we may be brought into the family of God, that we may even be the bride of the living Christ, even us, in our sin, all our sin cleansed, dealt with because of the blood of Christ, and we know this juice reminds us just a tiny little image of the blood of Christ, and we drink it together because because we're 1, we're together with given together where where the body and Christ is the head. And so we we thank you for this image. We think of the the bread picture of your body broken on the cross. And and when you instigated this Lord's table, you You broke that bread and said, this is my body, broken for you.

What an extraordinary lover we have. That Jesus would be broken for us, that we may be his bride. He's bought us With a great price, help us to live in the light of that we pray. So we thank you for these very simple symbols. And as we take them please, Lord, help us to remember these truths in Jesus' name.

Our men.