Proverbs Ch9v27;30-34 - Get Your Fields Ready

[0:00] It's good to see everyone here this morning. Thanks, Connor, for leading this morning and! for musicians as well, for helping us to sing and to worship the Lord. One or two things would be! really helpful this morning. Number one, it's your Bible. So if you don't have one, there's some at the back if you'd like to get one. That would be great. So we're going to be looking at the book of Proverbs shortly. And the second thing, which is a distant second, are there are some notes. So they're available as well. I think there's probably some left, Jonathan. Are there notes if there's some?

[0:39] Yeah, so if you want notes, it's fine. The only reason I highlight them is if you like long quotes from dead people, there's a good long quote at the end that I'm not going to quote, but you can read it for your own edification. So let's open up our Bibles. We're going to be looking at Proverbs 24 this morning. Over the last, I don't know, 10 weeks maybe, we've been going through the book of Proverbs. We went right up to chapter 9 last week, so finished out that whole kind of introductory section. This morning we're going to be looking at Proverbs 24. So it's page 661. So I got the great opportunity to preach the rest of the book of Proverbs. So this is the last in the series. Obviously you can't do that. But just pick something from that bigger section at the end where you have all these individual sayings, what we often think of as the Proverbs. We're going to be reading from Proverbs 24 shortly. Well, it is great to see so many people out this morning and to have people to speak to. It's amazing. You got up out of bed this morning. You got ready. You came to church.

[1:51] And you've not chosen this morning to go and take the opportunity to weed the garden. You've skipped the opportunity to go shopping at Man Point. You didn't stay over your Cocoa Pops scrolling your phone as you munched them. That's main character energy. You locked in. You hustled. You got here this morning. So I'm very proud of you all. But what got you here this morning? Have you ever thought about that? Maybe it was the speaker. You heard I was speaking. And probably not. In fact, I know one person this morning. Oh, you're speaking this morning. And they didn't leave. So I took that as an encouragement. Habit definitely helps, doesn't it? Coming along with family, knowing people.

[2:36] And I was really encouraged this morning by our time of worship. Knowing and feeling that need possibly brought you out to worship God with other people. And hopefully that's part of what drew you out here this morning. In any case, it took effort and it took planning to get here this morning.

[2:57] The book of Proverbs commends you. Because Proverbs is all about living out God's wisdom, his wisdom, in his world. So things like diligence in life, taking care of things, getting out to church, it's commended to us this morning from the Bible as wisdom, as being wise. And wisdom this morning, as we look at Proverbs 24, starts with this. It's great. Don't be a lazy bones. Don't be a lazy bones.

[3:33] Sermon done. But we'll look at it and see what the scriptures actually say. So Proverbs 24, and we're going to read from verse 30. So this is a section called Further Sayings for the Wise, a short section after 30 distinct sayings that the author of Proverbs, who we attribute mainly to Solomon, wrote. And any of these further sayings, we're going to read from verse 30.

[3:59] I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who had no sense. Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered in weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw.

[4:21] A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief, and scarcity like an armed man.

[4:35] Verse 30, two characters. The wise observer, the eye in this little section, and the useless article, as they'd say in Cork, the sluggard. And we can think of the eye as King Solomon the Wise.

[4:53] As I said, the Proverbs are ultimately all attributable to Solomon in some way. I don't know what time of day Solomon would have taken his daily walks. Possibly morning time before the sun got too high and it was too hot. And he might have gone out around his kingdom, checking things out, see how his subjects were doing, what the land was looking like. Because land was really important. It was given by God as a gift and a means to the people of Israel to create wealth. So the land was a gift from God to the people to create wealth. So many, many years before, each tribe and each family in Israel was given land. The land was divided up and given to the people. And they were to take care of it. They were to cultivate it. They were to look after it. And they were to draw a living from the land. Your land is your wealth. And that's a very true saying for the people of

[5:56] Israel back then. And it's still true for many people today all around the world, in Ireland as well. Your land is your wealth. As we walk with Solomon this morning, we're coming across of this, an array of well-tended vines and cultivated fields as we go past each family, each house. Oh, but one field stands out, doesn't it? It's not like the others. Verse 31, thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the stone wall was in ruins. Solomon gives a shake of the head, an annoying look.

[6:37] This guy, Ralph, the sluggard. Clueless. He's clueless. This is what not to do. And we should have known before we got to the field what we'd find. It's all there in verse 30, isn't it? I went past the field of a sluggard. It's the field of a sluggard. A wrecked vineyard starts in the heart of a sluggard.

[7:06] The broken stone walls come from a lazy bones, not a gust of wind. The field just gives poetic justice to his sluggishness, doesn't it? A sluggish heart produces sluggish actions, and it's all inevitable then. You're going to get ruined fields. Sluggard is a great word. It's not one we use very often, is it? I think it's due a comeback, so I'd like you all to be on social media this week talking about the sluggard. So I've actually got a campaign for you for the next five days to post about the sluggard. So if you're taking notes or in the notes, you can write these down. And I want to see lots of activity this week on Facebook and book face and grammar phones and whatever it is, you TikTokers or whatever. So because going through the book of Proverbs, you know, we've met the fool, we've met the mocker, we've met the wicked. But the sluggards who we meet today is the most tragically comic character. I mean, he's laughably incompetent and lazy. Take the laziest person in your house, maybe it's you, by the way. If you can't figure out who it is, it's possibly you. Take the laziest person and dial their laziness up, or is it down? I don't know how it works with laziness. Up or down by a factor of 10. And now you've got the sluggard in mind. Okay, these are your five points for social media this week. Chapter 26. We're going to look at verse 12. So you just flip over a page. 26 has a nice little five verses there about the sluggard, starting at verse 12. So just a page over. We're going to go through each of these ones. Step-by-step guide to being a sluggard, post one. Verse 12. They are wise.

[9:06] Be wise in your own eyes this week. Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for them. So the fool in Proverbs is better off than the sluggard. So step one, you've got to be wise in your own eyes. Sluggard people, do you hear me? Step two, work avoidance. This one's crucial.

[9:27] Step two, work avoidance. Verse 13. A sluggard says, there's a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets. Avoid going anywhere to do anything by claiming there are lions roaming about. Genius. I mean, who would have thought there are wolves out there? Don't go anywhere. Don't do any work because of the lions. Okay, step two, work avoidance. Step three is physical training. Verse 14. This is all you need to do to be fit to be a sluggard. As a door turns on its hinges, so the sluggard turns on his bed.

[10:09] The main exercise for your day is very simple. Pivot in your bed. This is how you do it. You set your alarm. You configure snooze for eight minutes. The alarm goes off. Eight minutes, turn over. Goes off again. Oh, eight minutes, turn over. And you flip every eight minutes based on your snooze button. Physical training, super important. Verse 15, my favorite. Do the minimum. The absolute minimum. A sluggard buries his hand in the dish and he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. Forget about table manners. Your parents were wrong. Elbows on tables. It doesn't matter. Just get the hand in the dish and the minimum distance, okay, to get the food into your mouth. It's not that hard. I think most of you can do it. And then the final step, step five, verse 16. Congratulations, you've reached it. The goal was in verse 12 and you have reached it. A sluggard is wiser in their own eyes than seven people who answer discreetly. You know what? You know more than a whole department of seven university professors. You're so wise.

[11:24] You're so wise. You've done it. You've reached it. You have that inside line, that inside track, the secret to life. The normies just don't get it. But you're the sluggard. You have reached it.

[11:39] It's the sluggard summed up. So if we go back a couple of pages and we read of the sluggard, chapter 24 and verse 32, the lesson is easy, isn't it? It's not a hard lesson to learn this morning with Solomon. It's quite easy. Verse 32. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, all classic sluggard stuff. And poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. You see, the bed pivoting, hand scooping sluggard, they've made it in their own eyes. They're wise in their own eyes. So when confronted with work, with something to do, something to tend to, it's all a little by little. It's a roll over in the bed. It's take a little snooze. Rest up a little first. Wait for the lions to pass. Very wise. But you see what it all is?

[12:47] It's a sluggish heart of self-wisdom that's going to lead to sluggish inactions for selfish comfort, which is going to lead to an impoverished life. You see, all you're doing, all you're doing when you're living like this is you're loading the dice. You're loading the dice. It's not going to be a fair roll in life. You've loaded the dice. And when you roll the dice, the number that suddenly comes up is verse 34. That's the guaranteed dice roll. That's what you're rolling. Poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. You see, it's all those micro decisions. You know, it's the sluggard.

[13:36] It's little by little, little by little, little by little. It's always a little. Those micro decisions to scroll some more on the phone. Do you know? That adds up. It adds up. Letting Netflix play next episode.

[13:54] It adds up. I'll tidy it up later. I'll come back to it. It adds up over time. And what we're doing is we're robbing ourselves. We're actually impoverishing ourselves. Poverty and scarcity becomes what we have. And so the lesson is this. The lesson from Solomon this morning, when you apply your heart to what you see, and the lesson you've got to learn is this. A sluggish heart, sluggish actions, the rest is the dice roll. It's loaded. It's an impoverished life. A sluggish heart, sluggish actions, an impoverished life. You see, it's a constant battle with self and comfort. It is a constant battle. We often tell one another at home something like this. Do the hard thing first. Get that done.

[14:50] Get that out of the way. Then go and take it easy. Do the hard thing first. Then take it easy. It's a way just to try and help each other to not become our own thieves. To not become our own thieves. To not be stealing from ourselves. We don't always model that well as parents. We don't always model that well in the family. But that's what we try to encourage or try to do or try to remind ourselves constantly. Because it's always easier. It's always easier after dinner to get up and to move away. It's always easier to have others get up and tidy away the dishes after dinner. It's always easier to have others empty the dishwasher. I don't know if you're good at that. Opening the dishwasher and going, oh, okay.

[15:32] Someone else will do that. To go to the recycling bin and stuff things down a little bit more. One little bit more and hope that it's the next person that comes by and kind of feels like, oh, the recycling bin needs to be emptied. It's always easier to head off to my own room and do my own thing. It's always easier after a day's work to collapse in front of the TV as I deserve it.

[15:54] I've had a hard day at work. I need my downtime. And the kids and the house and my wife can look after themselves. You see, a life of discipline and of work and in service and of service is mostly not our natural state. That's not our natural, for most of us, that's not our natural state. To serve others, to be disciplined, to work. Our natural state is more like the sluggard. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding, a little by little by little. The anti-sluggard. There is hope. Verse 27. So let's read verse 27. So the way this section is structured, there's two main things going on and are kind of paired and it's all kind of poetic. But really it's 27 goes with 30 to 34. Okay, so if you read that little section from 23 in your Bibles to the end, there's a kind of a pairing going on and a structure.

[16:57] But verse 27 is the antidote. Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready. After that, build your house. You see, the tragedy of the sluggard is that they've taken their wealth generation.

[17:17] He's taken his field and he's taken the vineyard and he's literally run them into the ground. So he's taken his wealth generation and destroyed it. Only poverty and scarcity can follow if you do that.

[17:33] But here in verse 27, we have the diligent person locked in. The wise person takes care of their wealth generation first. They take care of what it calls their outdoor work and then rests in their house. Let's read it again. Verse 27. Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready. And after that, build your house. After that, have the place of comfort and rest. Three stages in life.

[18:06] Just briefly think about whether you're growing up and still at school and college, whether you're out in that kind of working stage of life, or maybe you've reached the end and you're in retirement. So just three ways to think of it depending on your stage of life. Are you still at school or college or even living at home and kind of dependent on your parents? Be diligent. Take care of your schoolwork and help in the house. Don't put homework off. Do it well. There is plenty of time. Maybe you're sick of hearing this maybe from your parents. There is plenty of time. There are evenings. There are weekends.

[18:45] There are school holidays galore to rest. So at this time, generate a field of knowledge and a vineyard of understanding and learn. And learn to wait for things to come in their time. This is the stage you're in your life now. Focus on your fields that you have now as a student or if you're in that stage of life. True story. I knew a man once. Great guy. Very tuned in. And he sails through secondary school. Good at taking things in during class. Naturally bright. Very good at cramming for exams, especially the leave insert. Cracked the code. Knew how to do the leave insert. Coasted. Gets to college. Scrapes through first year. Just seat of the bum kind of thing. You know, seat of the pants kind of thing. Doesn't learn. Get your fields in order. Got the warning in first year. Second year.

[19:40] Proceeds to double down on skipping lectures and winging it. Because that's the way. Got me through first year. Promptly fails summer exams again. Fails the repeats. And needs a financial bailout from his parents to pay to repeat all of second year. A wannabe sluggard. Thankfully, I mean, he turned it around and finished out his degree in five years instead of four. Learn the lesson. Get your fields in order. For those that are working or maybe looking for work, it's good to work. It's good to do something useful. To get up, to get out, to serve others, to bring in money, to be able to provide for yourself and for your family. And we all have different skills. At times, we have different opportunities. And we should, during that phase of life, take care of our wealth generation.

[20:41] To be wise about the times. To be wise about the needs around us. Making wise choices about whether to stay put or to change jobs. To work out if a change of career is right. To learn how to spend. To learn how to save. To learn how to give. Those are important things. All three are important to learn at this stage of life.

[21:04] And to be wise. There's no one path. There's no one right route. There's not one right decision in these things. This is wisdom. Learn the hard way through experience. Through reading God's word about wealth and money and care and diligence. And taking all of that into account. And making those decisions based on your life situation. Maybe you've reached the end of your working life. Lord willing, your outdoor work was in order to some extent. And your fields were ready. And that they can still provide and produce for your needs today. Your household today. So continue to steward well as the Lord has given you. Live as the Lord sustains. Enjoy his gifts. And share with others as opportunity allows. So at all these stages of life, the key is to stop impoverishing and to stop stealing from ourselves. To take care of our fields and have something to share with others. The apostle Paul in the New Testament writes to a church making this very same point. It's a different type of stealing. But stealing is in there as well. Listen carefully. Anyone who has been stealing, maybe that includes stealing from yourself, must steal no longer. But must work. Doing something useful with their own hands. Listen to this. That they may have something to share with those in needs. Not a selfish working or a selfish gathering. But an honor to the Lord to have something to share with those who are in need.

[22:48] And it's the same message that Paul's saying that's in the Proverbs. Don't be a selfish lazy bones. Get your fields in order. I want to say in all of this, being in need, of course, is not all the result of comfort-seeking laziness. Being in need, experiencing poverty, is not all down to comfort-seeking laziness.

[23:17] Solomon knew the sluggard was the immediate cause of his own downfall. We're going past the field of a sluggard. Look at the state of those fields. The lesson to learn is there's a direct link. But elsewhere, interestingly, it's the wealthy that cause poverty. So just a couple of chapters back, you don't need to turn to it. Proverbs 22, there's a verse there that says, it's the wealthy, those who maybe had their fields in order, who oppress the poor to increase their wealth. Do you get that? They oppress the poor to increase their wealth. So we must always be cautious to not simply blame an individual's failure.

[24:00] Systems of injustice, someone being cheated, an illness, a disability, a flood, a brutal jobs market, they all contribute to situations of poverty and scarcity as well. It's not always down to an individual's choices. As we read through our Bibles, I mean, we're in Proverbs today, but this is a big topic and can't say everything on it. But it's one of the things you will grasp if you read through your Bibles on the topic of wealth and money is this repeated warning. That material wealth itself is the thing that can ruin us. I'll just say that again. The warning, the repeated consistent warning, I would say more than any other warning in this area, is that material wealth itself is the thing that can ruin us. Look at Proverbs 23 verses 4 to 5. So it is back maybe a page, page 659.

[25:04] Proverbs 23, 4 to 5. Listen to what it says. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches and they are gone. For they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. The pursuit of comfort from wealth can wear you out. Trusting in your own cleverness, getting ahead of the game, locking in, hustling, getting into the stage of life of saying, look at all that I've done. Only to say at that moment that I've made it. And it all flutters away. It's gone.

[25:58] That's how wealth can be. You see, I think there's actually two forms of the sluggard. I think there's sluggard 1.0. And it's all about comfort through laziness. Comfort through laziness. Remember the five-step plan that you'll be tweeting about this week? Comfort through laziness. Five steps to being a sluggard 1.0. And they are ultimately ruined by their laziness. Okay? So comfort through laziness and ultimately ruined by laziness. Then there's sluggard 2.0. And it's all about comfort through wealth. It's all about comfort through wealth. They feel comfortable and are comfortable because of wealth. And they are ultimately ruined by wealth. Jesus repeatedly warned of the trap of wealth, where wealth is gained and wealth is used apart from God. And so we'll turn to the New Testament and look at what Jesus had to say. Luke chapter 12. It's page 1044. 1044. Luke chapter 12. If you could turn in your Bibles, please. And we're looking at verse 13.

[27:20] I'm going to read this well-known parable. I think it'd be familiar to many. Listen. See how it relates to sluggard 1.0 that we read in Proverbs. How this is sluggard 2.0. The parable of the rich fool. Verse 13. Luke chapter 12. Someone in the crowd said to him, that's Jesus, said to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

[27:49] Jesus replied, man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Then he said to them, to the brothers, to the crowd, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

[28:06] This is brilliant. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. And he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.

[28:51] But God said to him, you fool. This very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then you will get what you have prepared for yourself. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God.

[29:15] Sluggard 1.0, if it's about the answer to Sluggard 1.0, is take care of your feels. I think that's the lesson from the Proverbs. Well, then the lesson here around Sluggard 2.0 is asking, those feels that you've taken care of, are they just for yourself? Are those feels just for yourself, as diligent as you've been? You see, storing for yourself, it means you're the main character.

[29:46] It's just your story. This is famously, well, maybe not famously, but it's known as the I parable. The I parable. What shall I do? If you read through the main character, what shall I do? I have no place.

[30:01] This is what I'll do. I will tear down. I will build. I will store. I will say to myself, take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. This is Sluggard 2.0. Self-comfort, self-I, still there, isn't it? It's still in the heart. It's still driving everything. But God says, you are a fool. Rich, but just like the Sluggard, you are a fool. You are only wise in your own eyes.

[30:39] Step one, this is for a social media campaign, step one to being a Sluggard. Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them. But that's the goal of the Sluggard. 1.0 or 2.0. It's to be themselves, to be wise in their own eyes, to do things their way, to be better than everyone else. There's no hope for a barn builder who is wise in their own eyes.

[31:06] The great I who did it all. So two warnings. Are you looking out your windows at home, at ruined fields, content to just turn over in your bed? Be warned. Are you looking out your windows to your fields at bigger barns, saying, look what I've done? Be warned. Or maybe you look out your window and it's 50-50. Oh, it's an overgrown garden, but that's a nice car. You see, in the truest sense, it's not most important whether you have poverty or riches. That's not what really counts in the Lord's eyes, because he sees the heart. And as we move through the gears of life, up and down, both wealth and poverty might come. But our constant companion is ourselves. And our constant companion is selfishness. And our constant companion through health and wealth and poverty and ups and downs is sin. Because we're selfish for comfort. Comfort from doing nothing or comfort from trying to do it all.

[32:29] ourselves. A fool by laziness or a fool by action. All of us, whatever angle we take, will know the night when our life is demanded and a question will be asked, have you been rich towards God? Have you been rich towards God? How would you answer that?

[32:53] How would you answer that? Have you been rich towards God? What receipts would you pull out? Well, God, ever since I got pocket money, I put aside 10%. And that 2p out of that 20p really hurt at the time. But I always tithe it. And I just put it in the offering box. And I continue that throughout all my life. God, I've taken that little bit of extra money that was in the bank. I still have enough just for a rainy day. But I gave it to Asia Link, Lord. I've been rich towards you and your kingdom.

[33:28] And tithing and sacrificial giving and taking care of the needs of others and sharing your possessions and your home, they're all good things. But that can't. That cannot be what it ultimately means to be rich towards God. It cannot. Are we rich towards God because God needs our money and needs our wealth?

[33:57] Well, actually, he doesn't. Maybe this is a surprise for some of you. He doesn't. God doesn't need our money or our wealth. Have you ever heard the phrase, and it's often used badly, but have you ever heard the phrase that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills? Have you ever heard that phrase? Well, it comes from Psalm 50. Listen, I'm just going to quote a few verses from Psalm 50. This is the Lord speaking.

[34:23] I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal in the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. God says, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it. He owns it all and he needs nothing from us. Who are you to repay or to try and enrich God? No, my friend, to be rich towards God is not to give him anything, but to receive everything from him. To be rich towards God is to live by faith and to continually draw from him. To be rich towards God is to give him all the glory for everything that we have comes from his hand and we shall not rob God or make him our debtor. For it is he and it is he alone who changes sluggish hearts to be serving hearts. He alone gives us life and breath and everything else so that we can be generous and free with our wealth in service to him. He alone enriches us by grace and gift so that we can meet the needs of others. To be rich towards God is not to top up his revolute account, but to draw from his infinite riches by faith. To be rich towards God is not to worry about tomorrow, what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear, but to look by faith to his hand to provide. He alone forgives our sins and heals our bodies and heals our bodies and provides our daily bread. Confess and turn from the sin of I and embrace Christ.

[36:23] Put your trust wholly in him to forgive your sin. He died for all who would believe in him. Live now in him and for him.

[36:35] Glorify him now in this life. So on the night that he calls you to give account, he will say to you, because he is a generous and rich God towards us, he will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant.

[36:54] You have been faithful with few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come, come and share in your master's happiness.

[37:08] Rich towards God is simply this, a life dependent on him from beginning to end that shows him to be the giver of all things. Our friends, my friends, Jesus was no sluggard. He wasn't a sluggard of any type.

[37:30] He wasn't a 1.0 or a 2.0 sluggard. He excelled. And nobody excelled more than Jesus at work and at diligence and doing the right thing, putting his fields in order. And yet there were few as lowly and as materially poor in this life. Jesus had no house. Jesus said, foxes have dens and the birds of nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. His outdoor work wasn't measured in literal fields and vineyards. His fields, the fields that he got ready were fields of souls to be harvested for the kingdom. Jesus had no wife. He had no children. He had no land. He had no descendants to carry his name.

[38:21] His wealth was to bring many sons and daughters to glory by doing his father's will. And Jesus, he knew poverty and he knew scarcity. And he was dependent on most, in most of his ministry, on the generosity of kind women who provided for his needs. And he was buried in a borrowed tomb. His wealth instead was to provide an eternal home for you, for his brothers and sisters in a city of gold. He was always rich towards God. Jesus was always rich towards God, fulfilling his mission. For the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. If you're still in Luke chapter 12, going to finish just looking at those final verses in that section, verses 32 to 34.

[39:22] Because Jesus lived out these words. Luke chapter 12, page 104.5 and verses 32 to 34. And he says these words to you this morning through the scriptures. Do not be afraid, little flock. Do not be afraid, little flock. For your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. A treasure in heaven that will never fail. Where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

[40:06] Oh, how wonderful that the father has been pleased to give the kingdom to Jesus and to give Jesus to you.

[40:18] Everything. Every field, every vineyard, every barn, every hill, every cattle is ours today in Christ. All is Christ's. All is Christ's. And he manages all things in his kingdom for us. Being rich towards God the giver is to be rich in faith and trust that his hand will provide now and into eternity. Amen.

[40:50] Let's pray. Amen. Lord, Lord, help us in faith to look to you as the giver, to respond to you, to be generous and kind, because you are generous and kind and you have made us to be like you. Lord, help us in faith every day to look to you for our daily bread. Lord, to do what is right and good, not for comfort or for self, but for the sake of others, for the glory of Christ. Thank you that Jesus, though he was rich, yet became poor for our sakes, so that our sin could be dealt with, that peace could be restored between God and mankind, and that we could have life eternal. Oh, how unsearchable are the riches of Christ. Help us to draw from them every day. Amen.

[42:14] Amen. So we've one song to sing in response and come back to Connor then. Thank you.

[42:33] Thank you.

[43:03] Thank you. Thank you.

[43:35] And my Savior watching on me, I can see who will as well.

[44:12] Oh, the high and death of mercy, oh, the length and breath of love. Oh, the fullness of redemption, let your best let life above.

[44:30] Take this world, my God's love. Take the world, forgive me, Jesus.

[44:43] In His cross, my trust shall be. Till we see a brighter vision. Place to faith, my Lord, I see.

[44:57] Oh, the high and death of mercy, oh, the length and breath of love. Oh, the fullness of redemption, let your best let life above.

[45:15] Take this world, my God's love. Oh, the fullness of redemption, let your best let life above.

[45:32] Oh, the fullness of redemption, let your best let life above. Thanks very much, Ralph. Those last couple of verses that Ralph read, Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

[45:54] Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. A treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

[46:07] Work hard. Get your feels in order. And verse 34, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We're not looking to the treasure of this world.

[46:19] We're looking to the treasure of the word. We're looking to the treasure that comes from God alone. Let's pray as we finish.

[46:32] Father God, thank you for this morning, for ministering to us. Thank you for Ralph and for using him and his great gifts to speak to us this morning.

[46:43] We pray that we, through the week ahead, are not like the sluggard. We pray instead that we would be rich towards God.

[46:55] That material possessions would not matter for us. That we value knowledge of Jesus. That we value your word.

[47:07] And that we value saving souls. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we will be having tea and coffee as well.

[47:20] So please do stick around. It would be great to chat. And please encourage each other how you can be rich towards God. Thank you. Thank you.

[48:23] Thank you.

[48:53] Thank you.

[49:23] Thank you.