WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.879 Good morning, everyone. Good job. That was a good response. Everyone's awake. My name is Eric. If 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:10.960 you don't know me, I'm one of the guys here on staff at Watermark Church, and it's great to be 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:16.839 here with you today to get a chance to look at God's Word together. So last week, obviously, 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:23.019 we had the typhoon, and we all stayed home for what turned out to be nothing. But the past few 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:26.679 weeks before that, we've been going through the book of Proverbs together, and we've been looking 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:34.019 at this idea of wisdom. And Chris defined wisdom for us as the skill of living well in God's world 00:00:34.019 --> 00:00:39.019 in the midst of the complexity of life. And so we've been looking at the book of Proverbs, trying 00:00:39.019 --> 00:00:45.539 to figure out what does it look like for us to be wise, and how do we become the type of people who 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:50.079 can live with wisdom in our day-to-day life. And we've been looking at some different characters 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:55.519 from the book of Proverbs to sort of see how we compare and contrast with those characters, 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:01.220 and how we need to change to become more like the wise. And today, we're going to look at the 00:01:01.220 --> 00:01:07.640 character of the simple. And what we're going to see is that God calls us to forsake our simplicity 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:15.560 and pursue wisdom, because the way of wisdom leads to life, and simplicity far too easily ends in 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.600 foolishness that leads to death. So we're going to pray, and then we'll jump in, and we will look at 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:27.459 the simple. Father, we thank you for today for this chance to look at your word and hear from you, 00:01:27.539 --> 00:01:32.699 and we pray that as we meet, that you would make us people who are wise, that you would make us people 00:01:32.699 --> 00:01:38.699 who know you and follow you and trust in you, and are able to live skillfully because of that. 00:01:39.139 --> 00:01:45.699 In Jesus' name, amen. So I want to start out today with an introduction to the simple, because I don't 00:01:45.699 --> 00:01:50.459 know if you're anything like me. Historically, when I would read the book of Proverbs, I'd just sort of 00:01:50.459 --> 00:01:55.339 skim over the simple and read it as the fool. But actually, if you look closely at the book of 00:01:55.339 --> 00:02:00.879 Proverbs, yes, the fool and the simple have a lot in common, but they also have some key important 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:07.019 differences. And I think the best way to compare and contrast the simple person and the fool is to 00:02:07.019 --> 00:02:13.979 look at both of them in contrast to the wise, and then see where they fall on that spectrum compared 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:20.979 to the wise person. So like we said, wisdom is the skill of living well in God's world in the midst of 00:02:20.979 --> 00:02:28.859 the complexities of life. You can kind of think of it like this. The world is a game, and God is the 00:02:28.859 --> 00:02:35.599 creator and designer of that game. He knows the perfect strategy for how to play that game best, 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:43.460 and he has shown it to us. And so wisdom is the rules and strategy to play that game of life 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:50.400 properly in the best way possible, no matter what complexities come our way. And the book of Proverbs 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:55.479 tells us that the ultimate key, the primary key to living life skillfully, no matter what happens, 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:02.299 is something it calls the fear of the Lord, which is this awe of God that leads us to trust God and 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:07.900 follow God. No matter what happens in our lives, we're trusting God, we're following him wholeheartedly, 00:03:08.500 --> 00:03:14.060 and that is, according to the book of Proverbs, we'll call it the ultimate cheat code to living 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:20.780 wisely, to living skillfully. And wisdom starts with fear of the Lord and this relationship with God, 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:28.100 but it impacts every single area of our lives. So if you look at Proverbs chapter 1 verse 21 from the 00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:33.280 passage that we just read, you see wisdom, she's crying out in the streets, in the markets, in the 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:39.519 city gates, the places where everyday life happens, that's where wisdom is calling out to us and asking 00:03:39.519 --> 00:03:47.199 us to live by her guidance. So wisdom starts with fear of God and leads us to live all of our life with 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:55.120 skill. And the book of Proverbs introduces us to the wise and the fool and the simple and almost draws 00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:01.500 these like caricatures of them. So you can picture like faces in your mind that go with these characters. 00:04:01.939 --> 00:04:08.000 Or at least I do that when I read the book of Proverbs. And I wanted to introduce you to the characters that I 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:14.099 think of when I see each of these descriptions so that you can have a face to go with it as well. 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:19.740 And these are not perfect parallels, but I think they give us a little idea of what's going on. 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:25.400 So when I hear about the wise in the book of Proverbs, do we have any Lord of the Rings fans here? 00:04:27.340 --> 00:04:30.379 A few in the back corner. They all like to stay in the back. I don't know why. 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:35.939 But when I think of the book of Proverbs and I think of the wise, I think of Gandalf. 00:04:37.420 --> 00:04:43.980 Now if you know Lord of the Rings, you'll know Gandalf is a wizard. And he always seems to know exactly 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:49.160 the right thing to do and the right time to do it. And that's the picture of the wise in the book of 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:54.760 Proverbs. He lives skillfully, like Chris's definition of the wise said. So Gandalf will 00:04:54.760 --> 00:05:00.660 challenge people when they need to be challenged. And Proverbs 15, 31 says that the wise man challenges 00:05:00.660 --> 00:05:06.620 people who need to be challenged. Or Gandalf, he doesn't sit back while others fight, but he jumps 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:13.200 in and fights in the battles himself. He gets involved in the battles of his day. And Proverbs 21, 22 says 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:19.080 the wise man gets involved and scales the walls of the enemy city, just like Gandalf fighting the 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:25.939 battles. And Gandalf works tirelessly for the causes of good and justice, just like the wise king 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:34.439 in Proverbs 20, verse 26. So becoming this wise person, becoming more like Gandalf, is the goal of 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:41.659 the book of Proverbs. Now obviously, like I said, it's not a perfect parallel. Wisdom is presented as an 00:05:41.660 --> 00:05:50.060 attractive woman. Not quite there. And in Proverbs, wisdom, like I said, starts with the fear of the 00:05:50.060 --> 00:05:56.380 Lord. And obviously, the Lord of the Rings trilogy doesn't have a ton of spiritual elements in terms of 00:05:56.380 --> 00:06:02.120 the character's personal lives. But there's a lot of parallels between Gandalf and his skill in living 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:07.660 and the type of skill in living that Proverbs wants us to have. So that's the wise. And you can think of the 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:15.180 wise on one end of the spectrum. Now on the opposite end of the spectrum, Proverbs shows us the fool. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:23.040 And going back to life as a game and wisdom being living with the right strategy and by the right 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:28.800 rules, the fool is someone who looks at those rules, who looks at the instructions that God has given us, 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:36.780 and says, nah, I think I can do better. I think I have a better strategy for living than the one that 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:42.979 the creator and designer of this game has given me. And I think that by living my way, I can get better 00:06:42.979 --> 00:06:51.879 results. And so the fool looks at God's instructions and says, you know, God wants me to do honest 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:59.579 business. But if I lie about how many hours a job takes, I can charge my clients extra money, and then 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:06.560 I'll have more in my pocket, and I'll be richer, and I'll have better results. And so the fool cheats 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:15.339 clients and does dishonest business for the sake of this game. And what the book of Proverbs tells us is 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:20.819 that this may work out in the short term, but in the long term is typically going to catch up with 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:28.419 them. And like we saw in Proverbs 132, it says, the way that the fool lives leads to death. And again, 00:07:28.420 --> 00:07:34.280 I have a picture in my mind when I think of the fool, a face that sort of goes with that as a 00:07:34.280 --> 00:07:39.860 parallel for the fool. Again, not perfect, but I think a good one. Another Lord of the Rings name, 00:07:40.700 --> 00:07:48.259 but a little less well known, Wormtongue. Does anyone know who Wormtongue is? No? Okay. So Wormtongue 00:07:48.259 --> 00:07:56.180 is an advisor to a king, but he is sent to advise this king by the king's enemy. So he is sent to 00:07:56.180 --> 00:08:01.920 basically poison the king's mind and destroy the king's kingdom. And he comes in and he gives this 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:09.240 advice to the king that will destroy him. And he intentionally sets out to cause mischief and 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:15.780 discord, which Proverbs chapter 26 verse 10 says a fool is like an archer who just shoots everyone. 00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:19.460 You can picture like a row of archers. He just pulls out an arrow, and rather than shooting at the enemy, 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.620 he just shoots the guy in front of him in the back. That's what Wormtongue does. 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:30.459 And the longer that Wormtongue spends as an advisor in this kingdom, the more the kingdom just falls 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:38.500 into ruin. And the more rapidly the king ages and just becomes this frail old man. And Proverbs 10, 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:44.399 14 tells us the mouth of the fool brings ruin near. And we see this in Wormtongue's character in 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:50.580 Lord of the Rings. And the moment that Wormtongue is removed from advising the king, the kingdom is able 00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:57.600 to be revived and things are able to go well again. And like Proverbs says, being a fool or following a 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:05.280 fool, it leads to death. So we have the wise over here, Gandalf, who we want to be like. And we have 00:09:05.280 --> 00:09:11.620 the fool over here, Wormtongue, who we don't want to be like. And then right in the middle is the simple. 00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:18.679 And the major distinguishing thing about the simple is not that they're evil, not that they're trying 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:25.580 to be a terrible person and do terrible things. It's that they lack life experience, which leads 00:09:25.580 --> 00:09:32.799 them to making bad decisions again and again and again. So in Proverbs chapter 9, verse 15, 00:09:33.139 --> 00:09:39.620 we have Folly crying out to the simple. And it says she calls out to those who are going straight on 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:43.440 their way. What that means is this guy's on the right path. He's doing the right thing. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:50.000 But the fool looks at him and says, he's doing the right thing now, but it's so easy to get him to stop. 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:56.500 It's so easy to get him to turn from that path. And again, I have someone that comes to mind when I 00:09:56.500 --> 00:10:01.379 think of the simple, not from Lord of the Rings this time, someone maybe a few more of us, there's some 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:06.379 disappointed faces out there, I see it, but someone that maybe a few more of us will recognize. 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:16.139 When I think of the simple, I think of Joey. Anyone know Friends? I think of Joey from Friends. 00:10:16.439 --> 00:10:22.519 And here's the thing about Joey from Friends. He's a cool guy. He's sweet. He's lovable. He would 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:31.299 never intentionally do anything to hurt anyone, but he is dumb. And he makes terrible choices again and 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:39.279 again and again. Not because he's trying to hurt anyone, but because he's dumb. Joey. And, you know, 00:10:39.319 --> 00:10:43.679 just a picture of this, if you don't watch Friends, there's this episode where he's trying to sell this 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:49.579 entertainment system that holds, like, TVs and DVD players and stuff. And he's trying to prove to this 00:10:49.579 --> 00:10:54.879 potential buyer how big this cabinet is in the entertainment system. And to prove how big it is, 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:00.139 Joey climbs inside the cabinet to show him, like, look, it can fit a full-size human man. 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:06.779 And the potential buyer, once Joey climbs in, shuts the door, locks him in, and robs his entire 00:11:06.779 --> 00:11:12.860 apartment. Now, Joey's not trying to get his apartment robbed, but he's dumb. And he gets it 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:18.620 robbed anyways. And that's exactly the picture that we have of the simple in Proverbs. You look at them, 00:11:18.620 --> 00:11:25.799 just like you look at Joey, and you think, don't do it, don't do it. And he does it. That's the simple. 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:31.700 Again, not malicious, but they do it when you know that it's going to end in disaster. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:38.799 And Proverbs chapter 7 shows us a super clear picture of this. In 7.6, it says, I looked out my 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:45.340 window, and I looked through the lattice, and I saw among the simple, I saw among the youths, a young man 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:52.139 lacking sense. Now, this young man in this passage is what we in our culture would call a teenage boy. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:58.440 And you can sort of put yourself in the narrator's shoes. He looks out the window as the sun's going 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:04.340 down, and he sees this teenage boy out there walking along the street towards the house of his neighbor 00:12:04.340 --> 00:12:10.840 who has a pretty bad reputation. And now, in this passage, there's nothing that says that this boy 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:16.700 is out intentionally trying to do something wrong. He's just walking down the street. 00:12:19.180 --> 00:12:24.519 But because of the way that the story is being told, you know, you know that trouble is right 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:28.960 around the corner, and you're sort of looking out the window with the narrator being like, don't do it. 00:12:29.540 --> 00:12:33.800 Don't do it, just like you would to Joey, right? Don't do it. It's going to end in disaster. 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:41.219 And he just keeps walking down the street. And he comes to the house of this adulterous woman. 00:12:41.479 --> 00:12:46.120 And if you look at what happens in this passage, he doesn't go up to her and start trying to cause 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:51.500 trouble. She comes out to him and starts kissing him and talking to him. And it, like, if you look at 00:12:51.500 --> 00:13:00.099 the verbs that it uses, it says that she seizes him, that she compels him, she persuades him. 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:06.259 This is all initiated by her. He's not out there to do wrong things with someone else's wife. He's not 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:14.320 out there to cause trouble. She is completely the one initiating it. And he gives in and goes and has 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:21.060 sex with another man's wife. Now, the thing that sticks out to me about this passage is not that 00:13:21.060 --> 00:13:26.600 he's trying to cause trouble. It's simply that he hasn't taken the active step towards wisdom 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:34.620 of fleeing this bad decision. He's a teenage boy. He doesn't expect that some woman's going to be out 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:40.279 and be, come out and be like, hey, how you doing? And so he doesn't plan in advance how he's going to 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:46.840 respond when that situation presents itself. And so in this moment, he's trying to decide, do I sleep 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:52.500 with this woman or not? As she's kissing him, as she's dressed up like a prostitute, probably pretty 00:13:52.500 --> 00:14:00.279 scantily closed, as she's speaking to him as seductively as she knows how, as she's grabbing 00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:07.740 him. And now this teenage boy needs to make a decision on the spot, am I going to say yes or no? 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:13.860 And he's a sitting duck. And even the passage itself, it doesn't say what a terrible boy, 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:19.220 how ashamed he should be. No, it presents him as a victim. If you look in verse 22, it says, 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:25.000 he follows her as an ox goes to a slaughter. Think of an ox going to a slaughter. He's just like, 00:14:25.040 --> 00:14:33.139 hey, we're going for a walk. Oh, wait. No! It's too late, right? Verse 23, it says, he does not know 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:37.639 that it will cost him his life. He's not trying to cause harm. He's not trying to do evil, but he's 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:44.300 making a dumb decision that will kill him. And that is the simple in the book of Proverbs. 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:51.099 Proverbs. He lacks the life skill and experience to make the right choice, and it leaves him gullible 00:14:51.099 --> 00:14:57.779 and naive. And gullible and naive are great parallels for the simple in Proverbs. Gullible 00:14:57.779 --> 00:15:03.099 people and naive people, they make wrong choices because they don't have the life experience to 00:15:03.099 --> 00:15:09.439 know what the right choice is, and so they end up following the wrong crowd. And if you're a parent 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:15.020 here, and you're hearing this description, and you're like, that kind of sounds like my kids, 00:15:15.460 --> 00:15:24.680 that's the point. Proverbs draws lots of parallels between the simple and the young. And in one sense, 00:15:25.180 --> 00:15:30.460 that's normal. That's a normal part of our development, right? You think about every 13-year-old 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:36.580 boy that you've ever known in your life. The best behaved 13-year-old you've ever met still did tons of 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:42.600 dumb stuff because they're 13 and they don't know better. And when they're 13 and they do dumb stuff, 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:48.600 we're like, they're a kid, they'll figure it out. And it's a normal part of their development. But 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:55.379 when a guy like Joey, who's in his 30s, does the same type of things that your 13-year-old would do, 00:15:56.180 --> 00:16:03.000 it's not funny anymore. Well, unless it's on a TV show. But if your real-life friend in his 30s 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.960 is doing the same things that a 13-year-old boy would do because they've never taken the time 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:15.240 to grow up and mature and learn to live as an adult, it stops being funny very fast. And instead, 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:21.539 it becomes something that we look at them for and say, that's wrong. And so being simple is a normal 00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:28.159 part of our development, but it can easily become something that we are responsible for if we don't 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:34.679 take the active steps to pursue wisdom. So Proverbs says, we have the wise over here, we have the fool 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:40.219 over here, we have the simple in the middle. And the wise and the fool both look at the simple and 00:16:40.219 --> 00:16:46.399 see the simple right in the middle and want to pull the simple to their side. It's like a tug of war 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:53.419 where you have the wise pulling and you have the fool pulling. And that's this conversation that you see 00:16:53.419 --> 00:16:59.879 in Proverbs chapter 9. The wise woman calls out to the simple and says, come over here. And the 00:16:59.879 --> 00:17:07.659 foolish woman calls the simple and says, come over here. And the simple might recognize that the tug of 00:17:07.659 --> 00:17:13.259 war is happening, but the trait of the simple is a lot of times they just want to stay neutral. They 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:21.279 love their simplicity. They just want to stay there. And they don't realize that they have a default 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:28.000 movement, which is always towards the side of folly. Proverbs 122 says, the natural state of 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:34.420 the simple is to love simplicity and hate knowledge. Unless they put in effort to move towards the side 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:40.259 of wisdom, I'm moving the right direction. Unless they move in effort to move towards the side of 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:46.440 wisdom, they're always going to drift towards folly. Proverbs 14, 18 says that the simple will inherit 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:52.220 folly. That the natural direction that the simple tend is towards the side of folly. They're like 00:17:52.220 --> 00:17:57.059 someone who's treading water in a river. And they think, oh, I'm just treading water. I'm staying 00:17:57.059 --> 00:18:01.779 still. But there's this current in the river that's always pulling them in this direction. And that's the 00:18:01.779 --> 00:18:07.279 picture of the simple that we see in the book of Proverbs, to simply drift towards the side of 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:12.940 folly. And until the simple learn to put in effort to move towards the side of wisdom, they're always 00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:21.259 going to drift back to the side of folly. There's no such thing as simply staying neutral. So being 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:26.640 simple is a basic stage in all of our development. There's nothing wrong with being simple when we're 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:32.460 young, but moving towards maturity means taking active steps towards wisdom. And those steps are 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:37.240 essential because if we don't take them, we're always going to move back to the side of folly. 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:47.779 So each of us has a choice to make between wisdom and simplicity. And since the simple are primarily 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:51.359 the young, and most of us here are a little bit older, that means we can just zone out for the rest 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:57.839 of the sermon, right? We've all moved past that. We've all become mature. And so we can just take a nap. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:06.539 No need to listen anymore, right? No, that's wrong. Because our problem, my problem, and I'm guessing all of 00:19:06.539 --> 00:19:12.460 our problem, is that even though we should have taken the steps to move towards wisdom, far too 00:19:12.460 --> 00:19:18.240 often we choose to remain in our simplicity rather than taking the active steps towards wisdom. 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:25.799 You know, it's like in Proverbs 9. Wisdom calls out to us, but other voices call out to us as well. 00:19:26.399 --> 00:19:32.039 And there are competing voices in our lives. There's a voice that says, you know, you worked really hard 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:38.559 this week. And you just deserve a chance to relax. And pursuing wisdom, not relaxing. 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:46.000 There's this voice that says, you know, if you pursue wisdom in your free time, your friends and 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:50.759 your co-workers and your family members, they're going to think you're so boring. You don't want to be 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:57.619 boring. So don't worry about being wise. There are these voices that compete against the call of wisdom 00:19:57.619 --> 00:20:04.279 in each of our lives that hold us back from fully pursuing wisdom. And no matter who we are, there are 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:11.739 parts of our lives where we live as the simple rather than as the wise, where we're like Joey, not Gandalf. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:17.699 And I was convicted of this in my own life last week. I had a long flight back from the States. I was 00:20:17.699 --> 00:20:23.259 visiting family. And on long flights, they're great for watching movies. You just do these movie 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:28.819 marathons with whatever's on the plane. You just, next, next, next, next, next. You can get through a ton of 00:20:28.819 --> 00:20:35.740 movies in a 15 and a half hour flight. And I typically think what I watch in a movie is not going to affect me. 00:20:36.259 --> 00:20:43.740 But when you watch a ton of movies in a row, you realize what you watch in movies affects you. And here's what I 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:50.839 mean. Like as a Christian, I believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong. But if I'm watching a movie and there's 00:20:50.839 --> 00:20:56.500 this couple that's clearly perfect for each other, and they have near miss after near miss after near miss of 00:20:56.500 --> 00:21:01.899 connecting, and then finally they hit it off, and they connect, and they have this wonderful evening together, and the 00:21:01.899 --> 00:21:07.240 guy, as a perfect gentleman, walks the girl home at the end of the night, there's this little voice in my head that's 00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:14.619 like, invite him in. Invite him in. Now I know that that's not behavior that I should be celebrating or applauding, but I'm in 00:21:14.619 --> 00:21:20.000 entertainment mode, and I'm zoned out, and I'm cheering for things in the movie that I wouldn't normally cheer for in real life. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:28.000 Or as a Christian, I believe that we should treat other people with love. But sometimes in a movie, there's a 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.180 character who's just been mistreated again and again and again. And then they reach this point where they 00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:40.019 can't take it anymore, and they just have this like bit of rage where they go off on someone, and they're 00:21:40.019 --> 00:21:45.859 vindictive and angry, and it's usually filled with profanity. And there's this little voice inside my head 00:21:45.859 --> 00:21:52.619 that's like, yeah! You get them! In real life, if I saw that behavior, I would be appalled and embarrassed. 00:21:53.159 --> 00:21:59.879 But in a movie, I'm celebrating it, right? And what I realized from watching several movies in a row 00:21:59.879 --> 00:22:07.099 is that when I'm celebrating these things in the movie and approving a behavior I wouldn't approve of 00:22:07.099 --> 00:22:12.759 in the real world, when I walk away from the movie, it's way easier to continue approving of that behavior. 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:18.819 And so for a couple days after my flight, there would be these like normal everyday situations 00:22:18.819 --> 00:22:25.460 that are like mildly stressful, and I would just want to like go off on people. And I'd have to catch 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:31.379 myself and be like, Eric, that's not the type of person you want to be, right? You're being shaped by 00:22:31.379 --> 00:22:38.660 those movies that you watched, and you need wisdom to stop and come back to the right path. 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:44.800 And I realize I'm simple in my consumption of entertainment. I assume, I'm not watching 00:22:44.800 --> 00:22:49.519 these movies trying to be like, all right, how can I corrupt my thoughts and make myself 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:56.720 more susceptible to just getting angry? But I assume that by consuming this entertainment 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:02.560 and this media, it's not going to affect me when it's bound to. And that's the simple approach 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:08.000 to life. And all of us are simple in some area. How are you simple in your life? 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:16.700 Just a couple examples of ways that maybe we can be simple. For some of us, we're simple 00:23:16.700 --> 00:23:21.279 in our consumption of teaching about the Bible. You know, I've grown up in and around the church, 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:28.759 and there are certain phrases that Christians love that are very strongly actually opposed to 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:33.579 what the Bible teaches, but Christians will sometimes repeat them as if they're from the 00:23:33.579 --> 00:23:40.420 Bible itself. So for example, God helps those who help themselves. Yes, the Bible says that we should 00:23:40.420 --> 00:23:46.279 work hard, but the Bible also says that we should live other people-focused lives rather than just 00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:53.279 focusing on ourselves. And this focus on helping ourselves, first and foremost, is actually opposed 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:58.920 to the teaching of the Bible. But we hear it maybe from someone in the church, and it sounds good, and 00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:05.259 it's catchy, and it's easy to repeat, and so we repeat it. Not trying to cause harm, but simply because 00:24:05.259 --> 00:24:10.119 we're simple in our approach to the Bible, and we don't take the time to figure out whether it's actually 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:17.119 in God's Word or not. Or another one, this is like my personal pet peeve. Preach the gospel at all times. 00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:22.799 Use words when necessary. Now, I get the message that's trying to be spread there, right? Like, we should live 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:29.480 lives that back up what the Bible teaches. But in the Bible, sharing the gospel or preaching the gospel 00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:36.519 always, always, always, 100% of the time requires words. And when we live lives that back that up, we 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:41.720 might be, we might be, we could call it adorning the gospel, or we might be backing up what we say 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:49.079 with our words, but it can never, ever, ever replace our words. And I think by repeating that, that saying, 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:54.279 preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words, what can actually happen is it can discourage 00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:59.779 people from actually sharing the gospel, because they'll be like, well, I could say something with 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:05.359 my words, but I'm just saying it with my actions. And it ends up that we never actually end up sharing 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:10.099 the gospel with people, because we're like, well, I'm just sharing it with my life. That's not actually 00:25:10.099 --> 00:25:15.339 sharing the gospel. It might be adorning the gospel, it might be helping the words that we're saying 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:21.339 have more weight, but it's not a replacement for the words themselves. And again, no one repeats that 00:25:21.339 --> 00:25:27.779 trying to cause harm, but we're simple. We don't take the time to think it through, and we end up 00:25:27.779 --> 00:25:36.740 repeating things that aren't true. Or some of us are simple in our parenting, right? As someone who's 00:25:36.740 --> 00:25:40.839 worked with kids and youth for years, I've had several conversations with parents where they're like, 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:46.259 you know, I really want my kids to read their Bible. I really want them to be involved in these activities 00:25:46.259 --> 00:25:50.679 at church, but I want them to do it because they want to do it, not because I'm forcing them to do it. 00:25:52.179 --> 00:25:56.799 And you know what? If your kids want to read their Bibles, and they want to be involved in the activities 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:04.399 at church, that's wonderful. Encourage that. Bless that. But the tendency of the young is to be simple, and the 00:26:04.399 --> 00:26:10.779 tendency of the simple is to make bad choices. Not just bad choices, but Proverbs tells us bad choices 00:26:10.779 --> 00:26:20.740 that lead to death. And if we're sitting back, not giving the input to help our kids make the right 00:26:20.740 --> 00:26:27.839 choices, then what we're doing as parents is simply sitting back and watching our kids as they take a 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:35.680 path that's going to lead them to destruction. We're being simple in our parenting. We can't simply assume 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:40.039 that our kids are going to make the right choices because they're young, they're simple, they need 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:46.039 that help to take the steps towards wisdom that we as parents are uniquely equipped to give them. 00:26:47.660 --> 00:26:52.320 So all of us, I don't know whether you relate to either any of those examples or whether it's 00:26:52.320 --> 00:26:58.820 somewhere else in your life, but all of us have areas where we live simply, not wisely. And Proverbs 00:26:58.820 --> 00:27:04.600 warns us about the dangers of being simple because all of us are simple in our lives. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:12.120 It's kind of like God is watching us in the same way that we watch Joey, just shouting out to us, 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:19.560 don't do it! It's going to end in disaster and pointing us back towards the path to life. 00:27:21.660 --> 00:27:26.720 And so how do we choose this way of wisdom? How do we leave our simplicity and move towards 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:33.440 the way of wisdom? Well, I think to understand that, we first need to look at what leads us to being 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:38.920 simple and moving from simple to foolishness, what keeps us on that path in the first place. 00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:44.779 And so I've come up with a couple traits of the simple to help us run a heart diagnostic on 00:27:44.779 --> 00:27:49.720 ourselves to see where we can relate to that. And then hopefully once we see that, we can see 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:52.539 where the path to wisdom lies. Sound good? 00:27:52.539 --> 00:28:02.399 So the first attribute that I saw of the simple is that the simple want to be loved. Now this is a good 00:28:02.399 --> 00:28:08.980 desire. It's a God-given desire. God created us to experience love from him and his people. 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:16.339 If you look at Proverbs chapter 7, the young teenage boy is walking down the street. The adulterous woman 00:28:16.339 --> 00:28:23.460 comes up to him and in verse somewhere in here, verse 18, it says, 00:28:23.860 --> 00:28:29.960 come, let us take our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with love. He hears this 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:37.500 offer of love and he has this voice. It's like the desire of your heart is to be loved. And he gives in 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:43.380 to her invitation because he wants to be loved. It's this good human desire, the desire for love. 00:28:43.460 --> 00:28:50.119 It's one that you and I share. But because he's simple, he seeks the fulfillment of this desire 00:28:50.119 --> 00:28:58.759 in the wrong place. And it makes a choice that leads to death. Right? This is why pornography is 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:04.859 so popular in our culture. We all desire love. And pornography offers something that resembles love 00:29:04.859 --> 00:29:10.939 that's immediately available anytime, anywhere. And so people, men and women, all struggle with 00:29:10.939 --> 00:29:17.240 pornography. They make this choice in their pursuit of love that actually leads to destroying real life 00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:23.959 relationships. So the simple want love, but they have this short-sighted approach to love that leads 00:29:23.959 --> 00:29:31.339 them to seeking it in the wrong place. Second trait of the simple, the simple want to belong. Both wisdom 00:29:31.339 --> 00:29:36.959 and folly recognize this in Proverbs chapter 9. That's why both wisdom and folly prepare a meal 00:29:36.959 --> 00:29:43.419 and invite the simple into their home because they know the simple want a place to belong. And if I can 00:29:43.419 --> 00:29:48.019 offer the simple a place to belong with me, he's more likely to follow in my ways. And again, 00:29:49.459 --> 00:29:55.639 the Bible says we were created for community. Wanting to belong is a good God-given desire. 00:29:55.640 --> 00:30:03.740 But the simple, because they lack wisdom, can have a tendency to seek that belonging in the wrong place, 00:30:03.820 --> 00:30:09.680 a place that will lead to death. Not out of a desire to pursue death, but simply because they don't know. 00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:15.280 If you look at Proverbs 9.18, it's talking about the meal with this woman folly, and it says, 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:21.280 he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. He goes and makes 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:26.440 that choice because he doesn't know that it's going to lead to death. He's seeking the good desire of 00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:32.660 his heart in a wrong way that's going to lead him to destruction. You know, I was reading a study once, 00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:38.579 and they said the vast majority of Christian students who go off to university and become 00:30:38.579 --> 00:30:44.059 heavy partiers and binge drinkers don't actually plan to be heavy partiers and binge drinkers when 00:30:44.059 --> 00:30:49.839 they go to university. But they show up at university, and they realize that everyone else is doing it, 00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:56.079 and if they want to belong, then they need to do that to fit in. And so this good desire for belonging 00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:01.659 gets sought in the wrong place and leads them to this behavior that's going to be destructive to them. 00:31:03.139 --> 00:31:11.699 Good desire, wrong perspective, leads to a wrong choice. And again, we have these desires, all of us. 00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:17.179 We're normal, we're human. The simple are normal and human. They want love just like us. They want to 00:31:17.180 --> 00:31:24.920 belong just like us. But the thing that sets the simple apart is that because they have a short-term 00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:31.420 view of life, they can't see the full impact of their choices. They don't live with the fear of the 00:31:31.420 --> 00:31:37.360 Lord, which we said is the cheat code to unlocking a skillful life. And they end up making these wrong 00:31:37.360 --> 00:31:43.120 choices because they seek immediate fulfillment of these desires rather than ultimate fulfillment of 00:31:43.119 --> 00:31:49.799 these desires. And seeking the immediate fulfillment rather than the ultimate fulfillment leads to 00:31:49.799 --> 00:31:57.359 choices that lead to death. It's why the teenage boy in Proverbs 7 chooses to go sleep with the 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:01.819 adulterous woman, not realizing her husband will kill him when he finds out what has happened. 00:32:01.819 --> 00:32:10.799 It's why the simple in Proverbs 9 is tempted to go to this meal with folly because he doesn't know 00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:16.539 that the dead are there. It's why the porn addict clicks into the video, not thinking how it'll affect 00:32:16.539 --> 00:32:21.159 their relationship with their spouse or their children. It's why the uni student goes out and 00:32:21.159 --> 00:32:27.939 starts binge drinking, not thinking about the emotional and physical problems that can come from binge 00:32:27.940 --> 00:32:33.799 drinking. They simply make a choice because they believe this is where the deep desires of their 00:32:33.799 --> 00:32:41.480 heart can be fulfilled. Doesn't that explain so much of teenage behavior? But doesn't it explain so 00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:48.000 much of our behavior as well? We have good desires, we seek them in the wrong places, and we make choices 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:55.080 that cause pain and problems. And ultimately, Proverbs tells us that lead to death. 00:32:55.079 --> 00:33:02.939 So how do we turn from this love of simplicity that leads to death to a love of wisdom that leads to 00:33:02.939 --> 00:33:11.659 life? We need to go back to the way we were designed. See, this desire for love, is it good or bad? 00:33:12.740 --> 00:33:17.819 It's good, yes. We're created to have a loving relationship with God. The desire for community, 00:33:17.980 --> 00:33:24.980 is that good or bad? It's good. God created us to live in community as a people, 00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:32.720 together. According to the design that God gave us. These are good desires, but the way to fulfill them 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:40.919 is not through the most immediate opportunity, but through the ultimate opportunity, which is found 00:33:40.919 --> 00:33:47.279 in the fear of the Lord and in having a relationship with Him. And when we look at Jesus in the Bible, 00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:50.559 we find someone who didn't take this short-term approach to life, 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:56.980 but the long-term approach. He lived in the fear of the Lord, even when it cost Him dearly. 00:33:58.339 --> 00:34:05.440 See, Jesus chose to suffer immensely for the sake of obedience to God and for the sake of having a 00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:11.079 relationship with us. And this is huge for us. This is hugely important. 00:34:11.079 --> 00:34:20.599 Because when we look at Jesus, we see someone who saw our rebellion against God and was willing to die 00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:26.819 to forgive us and restore us to God. And so when we have this desire in our hearts for love, 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:32.000 we need to look no further than Jesus. Because in Jesus, we find someone who loved us 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:37.539 so deeply that He was willing to die to have a relationship with us. 00:34:37.539 --> 00:34:45.800 And when we have these desires in our hearts for belonging, we need to look no further than Jesus. 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:54.739 Because in Jesus, we have someone who knew us fully at our worst. He had no pretenses about us being 00:34:54.739 --> 00:35:01.219 better than we are. He knew completely how messed up and terrible we are. And yet He chose to die so 00:35:01.219 --> 00:35:07.460 that we could have a place to belong with Him forever. He didn't take the short-term approach to 00:35:07.460 --> 00:35:14.699 life. He took the long-term path, looking at the fear of the Lord so that we can have this 00:35:14.699 --> 00:35:19.860 relationship with Him that will lead us to a life that's not headed for destruction. 00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:25.599 And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I know that you, just like all of us, 00:35:25.639 --> 00:35:30.980 have these desires for love and belonging. And just like all of us, you've probably pursued these 00:35:30.980 --> 00:35:36.780 desires in ways that cause harm and hurt in the past. And my encouragement for you today 00:35:36.780 --> 00:35:44.480 is to look to Jesus. Find this love that you desire. Find the belonging that you desire in Him. 00:35:45.460 --> 00:35:52.699 And for all of us, whether we're Christian or not, until we see who Jesus is, until we see how Jesus 00:35:52.699 --> 00:35:57.559 loves us, until we see the love that's available in Him and the belonging that we have in Him, 00:35:57.559 --> 00:36:05.059 we're going to constantly make these short-sighted, short-term decisions that cause harm, that cause 00:36:05.059 --> 00:36:12.400 destruction, rather than live with this skillful, long-term view that leads to life. So in light of 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:16.820 this, we're going to have two responses today to the sermon. First, we're going to take communion 00:36:16.820 --> 00:36:21.759 together because it's a celebration of what Jesus has done for us. And then second, after communion, 00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:26.380 I'm going to come up for a couple more minutes and talk through some application points. So don't 00:36:26.380 --> 00:36:31.059 like just zone out after communion because there's a couple more minutes, like sermon part two coming 00:36:31.059 --> 00:36:37.800 after that. But first, communion. See, although we should find the fulfillment of our desires 00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:47.920 in Jesus, you, I'm sure you do it because I do it, I forget. I forget that I'm supposed to find this 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:52.519 in Him. And one of the amazing things about God is that He has built into the rhythm of the church's 00:36:52.519 --> 00:36:59.400 life, this reminder. This reminder of the great extents to which Jesus went out of His love for us, 00:36:59.460 --> 00:37:07.179 to rescue us, to save us, to love us, to give us a place to belong. And on the night before Jesus was 00:37:07.179 --> 00:37:11.960 killed, He had a meal with His disciples, and He gave them this bread and this wine, and He said, 00:37:12.039 --> 00:37:17.739 I want you to eat this and drink this when you get together so that you can remember me. And why do we 00:37:17.739 --> 00:37:23.239 need to remember? Because we forget. And so as we come together now, we're going to celebrate the 00:37:23.239 --> 00:37:28.500 fact that Jesus has rescued us, that Jesus has saved us, that He's loved us and given us a place to 00:37:28.500 --> 00:37:35.559 belong with these physical reminders that He has given us of His love and His acceptance. And He didn't 00:37:35.559 --> 00:37:40.159 just give them to us as individuals, He gave them to us as a community because in the community is 00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:46.259 supposed to be where we also find tangible pictures of His love and a place to belong here on earth as we 00:37:46.260 --> 00:37:53.760 await that ultimate reunion with Him in eternity. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, 00:37:53.940 --> 00:37:58.440 we would ask that you don't take the elements, but instead just take this time to reflect. 00:37:59.140 --> 00:38:05.420 This is a celebration that's for Christians specifically. And what we're going to do is 00:38:05.420 --> 00:38:08.500 we're going to have the band come up. We're going to have the communion stewards come forward. 00:38:09.420 --> 00:38:13.640 And the band's going to play. We'll line up. We'll come grab the elements, take them back to your seat, 00:38:13.639 --> 00:38:18.319 and in a couple minutes I'll come back up here and we will take them all together. 00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:32.420 On the night He was betrayed, Jesus had one last meal with His disciples. 00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:36.359 During the meal, He took the bread and He said, 00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:41.660 this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. 00:38:54.240 --> 00:38:56.680 Then He took the cup and He said, 00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:01.780 this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant of my blood. 00:39:01.780 --> 00:39:12.960 A lot of times I think it can be tempting to think that my faith in Jesus goes over here, 00:39:13.300 --> 00:39:17.300 and the way that I live my life goes over here, and there's not really a need for there to be 00:39:17.300 --> 00:39:22.760 an interaction between the two of them. But according to the book of Proverbs, that's not actually true. 00:39:23.540 --> 00:39:28.460 See, according to the book of Proverbs, our faith in Jesus is actually what is the key 00:39:28.460 --> 00:39:33.539 to unlocking us to have a skillful life in all the rest of our lives. 00:39:34.380 --> 00:39:37.519 And once we turn to this fear of the Lord and we trust in Jesus, 00:39:38.059 --> 00:39:42.099 it empowers us to live a healthy all-around life, 00:39:42.199 --> 00:39:46.280 to live with skill in God's world, no matter what complexities come at us. 00:39:46.659 --> 00:39:51.019 So I want to take a couple minutes and just look at how having the fear of the Lord 00:39:51.019 --> 00:39:54.860 and having this understanding that our belonging and our love come from Jesus 00:39:54.860 --> 00:40:01.960 impacts the rest of our lives. One area that it could impact, we talked earlier about simplicity 00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:07.740 and parenting. And I think our relationship with Jesus has a huge impact on this area, 00:40:07.820 --> 00:40:12.840 because when we don't remember that Jesus is our source of love and belonging, 00:40:12.840 --> 00:40:18.660 it can be so tempting to seek that in our children. And that makes us afraid of how they're 00:40:18.659 --> 00:40:24.480 going to respond to us if they don't like what we say. But when we understand our love and our 00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:31.539 belonging come from Jesus alone, we can have tough conversations with our kids. Because even if the 00:40:31.539 --> 00:40:35.440 conversation doesn't go like we would hope, and they don't walk out of the conversation with a 00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:39.599 smile on their face saying, wow, mom and dad, I'm so thankful God gave me you as my parents. 00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:43.899 We know that we're loved. We know that we have a place to belong. 00:40:43.900 --> 00:40:49.260 And having this fear of the Lord isn't just helpful in parenting. It's helpful in all of life. 00:40:49.619 --> 00:40:55.780 When we face temptation, having this fear of the Lord gives us the strength to stand up against it 00:40:55.780 --> 00:41:00.700 that we would never have otherwise. It gives us this perspective to see that certain choices 00:41:00.700 --> 00:41:08.460 are destructive and short-term. It gives us the perspective to see that, like the teenage boy, 00:41:08.460 --> 00:41:15.460 going and sleeping with another man's wife, is not a good choice. It gives us the knowledge 00:41:15.460 --> 00:41:21.500 that we are loved even if we don't drink our fill of love until morning. And it gives us the strength 00:41:21.500 --> 00:41:28.220 to walk home to our own bed alone, but knowing that we're still loved, that we still have a place to 00:41:28.220 --> 00:41:35.420 belong with God. And it's not just sexual temptation, but any temptation. When your boss comes up to you at 00:41:35.420 --> 00:41:40.460 work and says, hey, I need you to change some numbers to help us improve our sales, 00:41:41.420 --> 00:41:47.740 knowing that you have a place to belong with God means that you don't need to fear your boss's 00:41:47.740 --> 00:41:54.019 rejection. Knowing that you're loved by God gives you a strength to stand up to temptation in that 00:41:54.019 --> 00:42:00.500 moment that you couldn't have otherwise. Having this fear of the Lord helps us to live with skill 00:42:00.500 --> 00:42:07.159 in all of life. Knowing that God loves us and accepts us gives us a strength that we can't have 00:42:07.159 --> 00:42:13.440 apart from that. And these are just a couple examples of how it works. But the book of Proverbs 00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:18.699 tells us the fear of the Lord, this relationship with Jesus, is the cheat code we need to live a 00:42:18.699 --> 00:42:25.800 skillful life no matter what complexities the real world throws at us. And this way to wisdom, 00:42:25.800 --> 00:42:33.700 it's not natural to us. It takes effort. It takes pushing against the natural trend towards foolishness. 00:42:35.860 --> 00:42:41.500 But God has given us tools in Jesus, in the community around us, in his word, the Bible, 00:42:41.700 --> 00:42:46.980 to help us make that conscious choice to pursue him even when it's difficult. 00:42:48.260 --> 00:42:50.780 So my challenge to us this week is don't be like Joey. 00:42:50.780 --> 00:42:58.600 Let's be like Gandalf. Pursue God and pursue the skillful life that comes from a relationship with 00:42:58.600 --> 00:43:06.200 him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word, for your truth, for the 00:43:06.200 --> 00:43:12.640 challenges that it gives to us, and for the way that you give us the strength to respond in obedience 00:43:12.640 --> 00:43:18.420 to you because you have loved us first and you have given us a place to belong first. I pray that this 00:43:18.420 --> 00:43:24.659 week we would be people who live with a relationship with you at the front of our minds, who live with 00:43:24.659 --> 00:43:33.320 skill because of that, who live with love and joy. I pray that that we would be a people who are 00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:38.780 different than the world around us and who stick out in an amazing and positive way so that others 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:45.980 can see how great a life pursuing you is and that they would be drawn to know you as well. In Jesus' name, amen.