In the sermon 'Fruitful Relationships' by Peter Allison, the speaker delves into the biblical wisdom found in Proverbs regarding relationships. The sermon emphasizes the critical nature of choosing the right friendships, avoiding those with angry or morally flawed individuals to prevent negative influences on one's character. Allison also highlights the importance of parental discipline, aligning with Proverbs' guidance on correcting children as a means of nurturing them in wisdom and setting them on the path of righteousness. The sermon further encourages seeking relationships with mentors who can provide instruction, and underscores the value of maintaining strong ties with parents and family. Additionally, it warns against envying sinners or forming associations with those who indulge in hedonistic lifestyles, such as winebibbers and gluttons, due to the spiritual and moral pitfalls they represent. Central to the sermon is the admonition to live in 'fear of the Lord,' integrating a reverent relationship with God into everyday life decisions and actions, thereby cultivating a life of wisdom and truth.

Our scripture reading is Proverbs. I'd like to read two verses in chapter 22 and then we'll jump to chapter 23 verse 12. So Proverbs 22 verse 24, Verse 24, make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Verse 23, verse 12, Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge. Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

You shall beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice. Indeed I myself, yes my inmost Being will rejoice when your lips speak right things. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day. For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.

Hear my son and be wise and guide your heart in the way. Do not mix with wine-bibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat. For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. Listen to your Father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it.

Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice. My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways, for a harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim and increases the unfaithfulness among men.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine, do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly and at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who goes down in the midst of the sea or like one who lies at the top of the mast saying, They have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.

When shall I awake that I may see another drink? Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them. For their heart devises violence, and their lips talk of trouble-making." May our petitions be received that the Lord would deliver us according to this His word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have preserved your word. Over thousands of years, it comes to us without error.

It comes to us this morning, We ask that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes. It would open our hearts To see and to understand Open our ears that we may hear For this is a word of life word of truth This is wisdom I asked the Father that you would sanctify this vessel of clay and these sinful lips to proclaim your holiness in Jesus name amen Some wise person, I have no idea who, but somebody at one time said that you will be the same person five years from now except that you are today, except for the books you read and the people that you meet. And there is apparently enough truth in that, or there is enough truth in that, that it gets repeated and repeated again and again. But this is a passage this morning from God's Word that is saying something very similar. You remember, if we, to review, we've been looking at this next section in the book of Proverbs itself.

This is, we call it the third part of Proverbs. So we had the introduction, the prologue for the first nine chapters, then chapters 10 through 22, or part of 22. We had all these proverbs that we went through, more or less proverb by proverb. This section then, beginning with, in the middle of 22, starts a third part, and most commentators, and I agree with that, see three sections, three big sections in this third part of Proverbs and we looked at the first section a couple weeks ago and that was about the wise acquisition and the stewardship of wealth. And we saw there that Proverbs taught us not to take advantage of people, to respect customs and boundaries, to develop skill in our calling and vocation, to warn us that the governor's gifts have strings attached to them.

It warned us not to chase the money. And it warned us about trying to teach people that weren't ready to learn and warned us about people that didn't mean what they say. All things that are important to keep in mind. But this then begins the second section, which is dealing with wisdom in relationships. Because relationships are very important.

As that saying goes, you'll be the same person five years from now that you are today, except for the relationships that you enter into. So it's very important, the relationships that we enter into, the relationships that we should avoid, and the relationships that we should seek to cultivate. These are both taught in this passage. I have Seen that the first verses in in Proverbs 22 There there are three Proverbs And I think each of those Proverbs sort of provides a capstone a summary of what each of those sections is about. So it's a little bit of a confusing outline, I grant you, and maybe a little unorthodox, but I think it is here in the Word of God.

And so if you take your Bibles for a minute, I will outline this again. This third part of Proverbs begins in chapter 22 and verse 17. And from verse 17 through verse 21 is an introduction again, just like we had in the whole book of Proverbs, this section has an introduction. And the themes in that introduction are very similar to the themes that were in the first nine chapters. And then there are three proverbs, three statements that I think form summaries of each of these three sections and the first one was, don't rob the poor, don't oppress the afflicted.

That was dealing with the acquisition of wealth and stewardship of wealth. And then in verse 24 and 25 of chapter 22, make no friendship with an angry man. This is dealing with this area of friendship, of relationships. And then the third area, which Lord willing we will look at later next week or so is verses 26 and 27 which will see deal with wisdom in building our house. So today though we are looking at this second part, the summary proverb, the capstone for this section is verse 24 and 25, make no friendship with an angry man, with a furious man, do not go lest you learn his ways.

It's speaking about relationships. Who should we relate to? Who should we develop relationships with and who should we avoid? Because friends have an influence on us. That's the first thing to see.

Friends have an influence on us. It's what it says there, you will learn his ways, you will learn his ways, and you will set a snare for your soul. So friends have an influence on us. They can have a very big influence on us. And so Proverbs warns us first, don't establish a friendship with an angry man.

Now it doesn't say don't be friendly to an angry man. It says don't establish a friendship, an ongoing relationship where you allow them into the fellowship of your life? Because if you spend a lot of time together working alongside your you will develop a bond and this angry man will influence you and that friendship will become a trap because his anger will become something that you learn and something that you begin to do. And we know that the wrath of man, the anger of man, does not accomplish the righteousness of God. You see, the people that we spend time with, The people that we allow into our life, whom we live with, who we begin to eat with, and fellowship with, these people do have an influence on our life.

And if those are good influences and good relationships, that's a good thing but where We are where there these are angry people or other types of people with significant character flaws, significant sins that have overtaken them, then this is not good. Becomes a trap to us, a snare to us, a stumbling block. Two people can't walk together unless they are in agreement. And so in a sense when you're walking closely with somebody who has a very significant sin like that that is dominating their life, you can't walk together unless there is some level of agreement. And so you either don't walk together, or if you are walking together, you come into some form of agreement with them, to the extent that you walk together.

So we are warned here to be careful, to be careful, to be deliberate about the friendships that we form, about the people that we choose to spend time around. Now it doesn't say don't spend time with, don't establish friendships with people you don't like. It's not what it says. It says don't establish friendships with an angry man. And there's a big difference.

People that are different from us, that might be a good person to establish a friendship. We might be able to learn something from them. They may have strengths where we're weak, and we might have strengths where they're weak. So just because somebody is different or just because somebody is not your type, this is not an excuse not to be friends with them, especially when it's somebody in the body of Christ in our local fellowship. We should be seeking to reach out to people.

And Where there are people in the body of Christ who have been overtaken with a sin, then the instruction of God's Word is that we ought to come alongside of them in gentleness and humility to seek to restore such a one. And so we shouldn't use this as an excuse not to be friendly. It's not saying don't be friendly to people. We shouldn't use it as an excuse why we can't be friends with people that are different from us or whose ways seem different from us. The second principle here deals with the parent-child relationship.

So We jump to verse 12, which has a general instruction that we will look at a little bit later. Apply your heart to wisdom and your ears to words of knowledge. Apply your heart to wisdom and your ears to words of knowledge. Apply your heart to wisdom and your ears to words of knowledge. This is the wisdom that follows that exhortation.

Do not withhold correction from a child. See, those who hate God and seek to attack his reign or do attack his reign they work very very hard to overturn this wisdom. They work very hard and to convince us that this is not wisdom, but that this is outdated, that there is a better way. There are many Christians even today who would claim to believe in God, who are saying the same thing. That this is not wisdom.

That this is a bad way. There's a better way to raise your children. But God's word says, apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Do not withhold correction from a child. See those who are attacking the reign of Christ, and I say it that way because what you're dealing with here is family government and As you know as you realize there are three foundational governments that God has ordained the family the church and the state and Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Rules remember he is reigning He rules through each of those governments.

And they each have their role, they each have their calling, They are each said to be ministers of God. The duty of the civil magistrate as God's minister of wrath is to bring God's wrath on those who do evil and to praise those who do well. That's a ministerial function. The church is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. It's to be one of proclamations, to be one of exhortation, of counsel, of preaching the gospel.

And the government of the family is to raise up children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. God said of Abraham that I have known him that he might command his house after himself to fear me. And to do that, There needs to be correction. Every form of government needs discipline or it's not a government. The civil magistrate has the power of the sword, the power of life and death.

He has the power to take the life of those who have transgressed God's law or to bring other lesser punishments for less heinous Transgressions of that law, but those are outward transgressions The church has a government as well They have a sword to bar from the table the sacraments to bar from the the kingdom of heaven Jesus said what you what you bind on earth is bound in heaven, what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Again, acting as God's minister. But also the family has a government And there is an authority that that government needs to execute, needs to carry out. Execute in the sense of kill, but execute in the sense of do. And so that is why people who seek to eliminate the ability of parents to exercise authority over their children are directly attacking Christ's messianic reign.

They're seeking to Prevent the ability of parents to command their children after them in the fear of the Lord and To do that they are directly attacking Christ just as much as Pharaoh In trying to kill all the male children of Israel was seeking to destroy the line from which God said the Messiah would come, or Herod killing all the children, seeking to kill, destroy the line from which Christ would come. These people are seeking to destroy, to undo, to overturn one of the foundational earthly governments through which Christ rules. That is the one that is called to pass on to the next generation and Train them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord and that requires authority and authority requires Discipline to back it up authority without discipline is not authority And so that's why these people that are embodied in the United Nations and other organizations that have flowed out from them have presented the idea that the parent-child relationship is one of equality, that it is one in which the will of the child is as important and valid as the will of the parents, and that it ought to be followed instead of the will of the parents with respect to the child.

These ideas are embodied in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, a document that's been signed by most of the nations of the world, but thankfully not yet adopted in the United States, although they've been trying for close to 30 years now, maybe over 30 years. And that's a document that would say children are not entrusted to parents in any way of authority That children have a right to decide for themselves What they want to learn who they want to associate with what friends they want to have where they will go to church and What they will what they will do with their time. The right of self-determination. See, the most effective lies are those that are wrapped in an element of truth. And there is a little element of truth.

As we saw in Proverbs 22, verse 6, parents are instructed to train up a child in the way he ought to go. We saw that that means we are to train our children in the way that is uniquely suited to them. That doesn't mean letting them go in the way that their sinful heart wants to take them, because that obviously doesn't take any training. They will naturally go in the way that their sinful heart will take them. But it means to train them in the ways that are most appropriate to their ability and to provide the correction that is tailored to their unique expression of their fallen nature.

Verse 15 of that chapter said that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And of course, that driving that foolishness away is a work of the Holy Spirit. The instrument of the rod is one of the means. And so we see that as parents, we must uniquely relate to each of our children. We can't simply relate to them the way our father or mother related to us even if they were godly parents Because this is a different relationship with a different dynamic people learn differently they make decisions based on different criteria they put different relative values on things.

And so there is, you see, this element of truth in what is being said, but It's a lie. The lie is that the use of the rod will breed anger and violence in children. That it will lead them just to hate us and to hate others and to be angry people. And there are many Christians that are saying that. They're saying the use of the rod is bad.

It's a bad way to raise children, that it brings bad fruit. Well what's the Bible say? It's not the rod that brings anger and violence. We saw that it is an association and friendship with an angry man that leads us into being angry ourselves, that sets a snare for our soul. What makes angry, violent children?

Growing up In a home of angry parents produces angry children. It is being treated unjustly. It is where authority is abused, or where authority is used for our own pleasure, our own benefit, and not for the good and the well-being of our children. The rod, when rightly administered, out of love, and that's what Proverbs says, he who loves his child will discipline him. It doesn't say spare the rod, spoil the child, it says you spare the rod, you hate your child.

That's a misquote. It's a misquote of the Bible. If you spare the rod, you hate your child. But he who loves him will discipline him promptly. And that discipline is not in anger.

It's anger. It's angry parents that raise angry children. It's violent parents that raise children who are given to violence. It's not the rod. It's not chastening.

And so we have to be, the rod is an effective tool of teaching and so we have to be very careful that in our use of the rod we aren't angry because then we will be using a very effective tool for instruction to teach anger. So this passage then calls us as parents to hear wisdom, to hear the wisdom of God's word, that is a direct contradiction of what is being presented today as wisdom. It gives us assurance, a very comforting assurance, that if we spank our children, and it uses the word beat, because that's what a spanking is, it's beating, if we do that, that we won't hurt them, assuming that we do it the place that God has created for that. And we won't hurt them. When rightly done, it won't hurt our children.

It won't hurt us either. But it may deliver their soul from hell. That's from Sheol. Sheol, or Hades in the New Testament, is cast into the lake of fire where there is eternal torment the devil and his angels the lake of fire is a place of eternal torment prepared for the devil and his angels revelation tells us and Sheol is cast into the lake of fire. Those who are in Christ are delivered from Sheol.

Psalm 86 speaks about the deliverance of God's people from Sheol. This is a reference then, an indirect reference to eternal death and eternal destruction. It says the right use of the rod delivers the soul of our children. The soul refers to us as a person. When the Bible uses the word soul, you need to think of us as a complete person.

We have two parts, a body and a spirit. Sometimes we call that spirit the soul. But the Bible says that God made man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul." In other words, that the dust and the breath of life together make a living soul. So the Bible uses that word soul to refer to us as full people, with both the bodily and the spirit nature So it says that you'll deliver their soul you'll deliver them from shiel And it's used there It's I think being used in a ref as a reference to where shiel goes in the final day of judgment into the lake of fire. So there it's a reference then to deliverance from eternal death, from the second, what the Bible calls the second death Being cut off from God and under his condemnation Now that it's not it's not going to do that all by itself this is a means that God is ordained and This this takes the power of the Holy Spirit And so there are many other aspects to the discipline of children and we've talked about some of these aspects in other places.

I'm not going to spend more time on that now. But just to remind us that there is more involved and you can't simply look at this verse out of context and say, well I just need to beat my children harder if they're not obeying. There is a right and a wrong way to do this, and there is a way to do it with wisdom, there is a way to do it in love. But at the end of the day, this passage is giving us a very strong assurance that we are not going to hurt our children by spanking them. We're not going to wound their psyche, we're not going to harm their self-image, whatever that might be.

We're not going to breed anger and violence in them by using the rod. But rather, we will deliver them from eternal death. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, but He works through chastity. If you think about how the Lord deals with us. When are we closest to the Lord?

When do we often have the greatest sense of relationship with Him, of submission to Him, of fellowship with Him? Isn't it in the times of chastening? Isn't it in the difficult times that we are most close to the Lord? And this is the way it ought to be in the chastening of our children. In this time of Discipline it's a time of connection It's a time of heart-to-heart talking It's a time of Where our?

Is most felt and known of where our affection is most felt and known. So it has two promises there, two things connected with it, delivering their soul from hell, but also it says a parent's heart rejoices. Parents heart rejoices when their children speak wisdom. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice. Indeed, I myself, yes, my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things." So this is a promise that through this proper training of our children, it becomes a source of joy to us as we see them walking in following the Lord and speaking what is wise.

That is one of the greatest joys in this life, as parents, is to see our children grow up and speak what is true and right. So what other principles do we have here for relationships? Well verse 17 tells us not to envy the wicked. Don't envy the wicked. Don't envy sinners.

We often want what is around us. We want to have what other people have, whether it's their houses and their cars or their work or their toys. We like to do what we see other people doing that looks fun and interesting, looks pleasing. We want to have the same experiences that everyone else is having. But this is a warning here, not to envy, not to desire, not to want what the sinner has.

Not to want to enjoy the sins that they are enjoying. But rather than envy them, our hearts should be drawn out, compassionately pleading for them. They have no hope. Sometimes we want to be friends with people that we see have a good life. The Bible is saying to be cautious about trying to follow or trying to be friends with what it calls sinners, those who are enjoying the pleasures of sin.

It goes on to say then to tell us about another class of people, another type of person that we shouldn't be associated with, and that is with drunks and revelers. Drunks and revelers. Don't mix with winebibbers. And again, it prefaces this admonition with, hear my son and be wise and guard your heart in the way. Drunks and winebibbers are people who live for pleasure.

People who live for pleasure, their own pleasure. And this section spends quite a bit of time describing these people. These are poor people, usually in debt bondage. They are personally often disheveled, messy, uncouth, unkempt, and they live in similar conditions. A famous father once described a prayer of his young son, famous and that you would know him.

Earlier in the day they had passed a house of ill repute and he had answered his son's question about that place by saying that it was a place where people did filthy things to each other. So in his bedtime prayer that night, this son prayed that these people would be delivered from vomiting all over each other. Because in his mind, that was the most disgusting, filthy thing that he could think of that people could do to each other. Well, he's probably right about that in one sense. It is one of the most disgusting and revolting bodily functions or malfunctions as the case might be.

It's, it is, we, it's, it makes us, we want to gag when we're around that, when we see that. But this is something with which drunks and gluttons are intimately familiar. Anybody that's been anywhere near a drunken party, I'm sure knows exactly what I'm talking about. It is disgusting. It is absolutely disgusting.

I could think of no more filthy, gross thing than people vomiting all over each other. Drunkenness and gluttony are closely associated with fornication. You see, all these sins arise from the same root. In fact, gluttony and drunkenness are both sins that are forbidden in the Seventh Commandment. If you look in the Westminster Larger Catechism on the question of the sins forbidden In the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, gluttony and drunkenness are listed there.

Because they both come from the same root, a lack of self-control. This was the sin of Sodom in Ezekiel 1649. Look this way. This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, a fullness of food, and abundance of idleness.

Fullness of food and abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy." Because these sins are often the foundation upon which fornication happens. Drunks and gluttonous sorrows, they have broken relationships. It's hard for them to maintain close relationships because they have a lack of self-control. And a lack of self-control means just like what saw how Sodom is described. They don't strengthen the hand of poor and needy They're not looking out for others They're looking out for themselves and it's very hard to be in a relationship Have any kind of significant relationship with somebody who is always looking out for themselves.

So another characteristic of drunkenness and gluttony is broken relationships. They have fights. They don't get their way and they become angry and resort to violence. They have self-inflicted injuries, wounds without a cause. They hurt themselves in their angry violence or drunken lack of coordination.

And they have hallucinations, self-inflicted errors of the mind. To see things, to see terrifying images. They lose all inhibitions and they speak freely of the private matters in their heart. Many a soldier or statesman has been seduced to give away the secrets of his country or his home by the wiles of a harlot upon an intoxicated fool. They also have a loss of pain when you are inebriated, when you have had too much alcohol to drink of any kind.

You have a diminished sense of pain. Pain is a vital part of keeping us safe. It's pain that enables us to sense danger. When you touch a hot stove, it's the pain that involuntarily causes you to retract. If you didn't have pain, you would just let your hand there burn.

So pain is a very useful, useful blessing. It tells us that something is wrong with us. So when you're drunk you have a loss of pain. You can't tell when something is harming your body. This is what the proverb says, don't mix with wine-bibbers.

Don't mix with people that are given to drinking wine people who live For the weekend and when they can have wine and beer and alcohol to drink Don't mix with those kind of people. Don't associate with them. For they will come to poverty. Drowsiness, sleepiness will clothe a man with rags. Who has woe?

Who has sorrow? Who has fights? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without a cause? Well if you have a loss of pain, you can't sense that you're being wounded, hurt.

You can't sense you're in a place of danger. A drunken person is a most helpless person, pitiable. People want to rape, they often resort to drugs or alcohol to get people inebriated. They lose their discernment, they lose their sensation, They black out. Who has redness of eyes?

The answer? Those who linger long at the wine. Those who linger long at the wine. One of the requirements given in the New Testament for those who would be officers in Christ's church is that they don't linger long at the wine. They don't go in search of mixed wine.

Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. There is a sensual appeal to wine. It's not all wrong. But we're cautioned to not be enticed by it. At the last it stings like a serpent, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper.

Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea. When people are drunk, They can't walk straight, they can't talk straight, they can't think straight. And they will do crazy things. Crazy things that they would never consider doing when they are not under the influence of alcohol.

Like one who lies at the top of a mast. It's a place of danger. It's not a place where you would lie down and sleep. It's a place that you go to be able to have a view as far away as possible. So you can see danger as far as possible.

It's not a place you would go to lie down. It's a place where you would fall and die. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies down at the top of the mass saying, they have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When Shall I awake that I may seek another drink?" What a description of drunkenness.

So very precise, so very detailed, so very accurate, even 3, 000 years later. Still very relevant. Still very, very relevant. Do not do not linger long outweigh Or mix with those who do Now what kind of relationships should we have What kind of relationships should we seek? First we should seek relationships with mentors who can instruct us.

We are said in verse 23 to apply our hearts to instruction. It involves there is some activity on our part to seek it out. Instruction is that word, Musar, that we've looked at many times before. Musar involves not just dry learning, but it involves learning in the context of living. It involves learning in the context of somebody who can train us.

It can, in some aspects, involve some element of chastening. It can involve some difficulties or trials that produce patience. It's often connected with the word rebuke many times, which is simply somebody pointing out to us where they have strayed. So the wise listen to instruction. They accept instruction.

They love instruction. They value it above money. They don't let it go. And So we should seek relationships where we can be instructed. We should seek relationships not just among people that are our juniors or our infidels or that will tell us yes all the time.

We need to have relationships with people that are able to instruct us, to mentor us. That's good to have. In fact, the New Testament even calls older women to that duty. Instead of serving themselves, instead of just spending their time now that their families are raised, instead of spending that time in idleness or in their own pleasure, they're called to spend that time in mentorships, be willing to sacrifice for that. But also that means we need to be seeking mentorships.

Secondly, we are to seek relationships with our father and mother. We are to seek relationships with our father and mother. Listen to your father and mother, or your father who begot you. Do not despise your mother when she is old. That is saying even after we grow up and leave the home and we have our own families or even our own children and grandchildren, that we should still listen and seek a relationship with our father and our mother.

We should also seek, I think, in general, cross-generational relationships. You see, no one is always right. And that's true of generations as much as it's true of people. Generations aren't always right. Generations can have blind spots.

Just like it's hard for us to see maybe where we're blind personally, because that's what it is, a blind spot, a place we're not seeing, it can be, a generation can have a blind spot. And it can be difficult when you live in that generation to see the blind spot of your generation and so that's why we need to read from From writers of previous generations, You know, we can look back and we can see the places where they might have got it wrong. But they can also point to us where we might have it wrong. And so by reading from prior generations, Reading Godly men and women from prior generations, we can see where our generational blind spots are. And I think that also applies with friendships.

We should have friends reach across the generations both up and down. Seek cross-generational relationships, but most importantly and lastly we need to seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, because He is the only source of wisdom and knowledge. And in the heart of the section that we've been looking at today, it says this, be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day. Verse 18, be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day long. In other words, to be in the fear of the Lord all day long means that this is a part, a normal part of our daily life.

The fear of the Lord is a very basic foundational statement about what it means to live in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. All the minute details of normal life are part of our relationship to the Lord. It's not just Sunday, it's not just now, it's not just Wednesday night prayer meeting or times of family worship, But how we relate to one another moment by moment, day by day, this is what it means, all these details, This is what it means to be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day long. Not just the great big decisions, not just in the great big projects and in, you might say, the overall direction of our life, but in the little steps. Because the great direction of our life is made up of those little steps that we take all day long.

It's the sum cumulative total of all those little steps. If all those little steps are headed in the same direction, then you can get quite far. If they're headed all in random directions, you don't get anywhere at all. Be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day long. Put a high value on ordinary service, not just the extraordinary.

Daily spiritual disciplines, prayer without ceasing, the scriptures morning and evening. This is what it means to live in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It means that we talk with Him. It means that we think of Him. And that we have fellowship and communication.

We are reading his word, that is his word to us. That is the only source of true wisdom. It is that book by which we evaluate, in the light of which we evaluate every other book. It's how we understand this world that God made, that we live in and that we study, which we call science. It all has to be understood in the light of the Word of God.

And that comes as we have a personal, abiding, living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Buy the truth and do not sell it. Also wisdom and understanding. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we marvel at the wisdom of Your Word that so accurately describes our lives, that so accurately describes conditions as we see and experience them even today.

For your Word does endure forever. Its truth abides. It is unchanging. We ask, Lord, that You would draw us to You. We ask that we might know You more, that we might love You more fervently, that we may serve you more zealously, that we may be in closer fellowship with you, that we might be led by your Spirit, that our emotions might be the emotions of your Holy Spirit working in us, that our will might be led by your Spirit, that we may choose and have your mind.

Lord may our thinking be redeemed from the futile thinking of this world, to think your thoughts after you. After you. Oh Lord, we do dedicate our lives to you this morning again. And ask that your Holy Spirit would be our wisdom, for He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that He might be our Comforter and Guide. We thank you and we praise you that you do condescend to dwell with us and to see us in the heavenlies with you.

Lord, may we know more, more of you. May we know you more. In Jesus' name, amen.