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Proverbs 1:8-19 A Warning Against Walking in the Way of Wickedness 6.23.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Proverbs chapter 1, our text this morning is going to be verses 8 to 19, our title, A Warning Against Walking in the Way of the Wicked. We've begun a series in the Proverbs called The Beginning of Wisdom, the study of two possible life paths, the way of the wise and the way of the fool. And King Solomon, the author of the majority of the book, laid out his introduction a couple of weeks ago in verses 1 to 7, and he stated simply that the life of wisdom is the life lived with skill. We noted the sad reality.
• 0:31
  that not all people who live are winning. Not all those who endure earth's journey come out ahead, like the people of Ephraim. In Hosea's time, many people are like cakes not turned. They're alive, yes, but truly living? No. Enjoying the abundant life that Jesus promised? No. Alive, breathing, walking, but missing it.
• 1:02
  Many, in fact, most, in my opinion, live their entire lives balancing the stroller with the broken handle, barely hanging on everything they love and the balance. And the promise of Proverbs is skillful living for all who will apply its words. It gives us heaven's wisdom in the areas of life where we are most often confused, like in our marriages, how to raise our kids.
• 1:29
  how to work hard, how to have a God-glorifying work ethic. The book of Proverbs talks about that. How to have good friendships, how to use our words to edify and build up rather than to tear down. Even day-to-day practical, what would be considered secular things like the use of alcohol, Proverbs talks about, and on and on. And I would remind us again of St. Augustine's statement when he said,
• 1:57
  When scripture speaks, God speaks. When we find ourselves at a crossroads and unsure of which way to turn, let us look to the wisdom of God rather than to that of man. Let us become a church that the Lord who created us and sustains us with his very word, let us be the type of church who trusts and understands how we can live to our fullest, but only inside the will of God. Let us turn now to this book.
• 2:29
  And this text, we'll read it and pray and begin beginning in verse 8. It says, Hear, my son, your father's instruction. Forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit.
• 3:01
  We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life.
• 3:31
  of its possessors. And Lord, I pray that you would give us wisdom and insight. I pray that we would see these words with clarity and understanding, that our hearts would be submissive, that our minds would be attuned and alert. Lord, like the prophet Isaiah said, God, I pray that we would dig out our ears so that we could hear the prophetic word is taught. Lord, may we not be like the foolish man who looks at himself.
• 3:58
  in the mirror, and then goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But may we be doers of your word, applying it to our lives. Lord, we are so thankful for this text today, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, we live in a world of a million voices. Anyone with an iPhone and a Twitter account feels like their voice must be heard.
• 4:27
  that their opinions must be valued, that their perspective must be validated. The current American ideal is open-mindedness. We have become a people who are unwilling to draw any lines anywhere, even if that violates our own conscience. I heard a pastor one time say to those who are so flagrantly open-minded, and I quote, people who have such open minds should consider closing them.
• 4:58
  Their brains are apparently leaking out. And despite popular opinion, despite what you may have been told, despite what you may even feel to be good or right, some beliefs are wrong. Some lifestyles do not work. Some paths only bring hurt. Some people actually give bad advice.
• 5:27
  Let's turn our attention now to verses 8 and 9. And notice first the care with which our author writes. See again in verse 8. Hear, my son, my son. A term of endearment, a term of caring and sacrifice. And he continues, your father's instruction. Forsake not your mother's teaching. If you're ever torn on whose advice to take.
• 5:54
  on whose advice may actually be the best for you, consider the love with which that advice is offered. I am, as a pastor, confronted often with the reality that not all of our youth always take their parents' advice. Have you guys noticed that as well? Many times the words of their friends supersede those of their parents. And the years of care and sacrifice
• 6:29
  The money spent on furniture and food and doctors and diapers. The hours passed holding and patting and comforting and hugging and wiping. The prayers offered for protection, provision, wisdom are often quickly supplanted by the words of whatever knucklehead they get sat next to in their homeroom class. They'll hear things like, your parents don't know what they're talking about. They don't want what's best for you. Your parents only think about themselves.
• 7:02
  If they truly wanted what was best for you, they would let you live your life. They just enjoy telling you no. Your parents have lost touch. They don't live in reality. They're obsolete. They're antiquated. Although the knucklehead in their homeroom class probably doesn't know what the word antiquated means. We are the ones, they will say, who truly understand how the world works. We are the ones who truly care about you.
• 7:32
  I think it was Mark Twain who said it best when he said, when I was a boy of 14 years old, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand having the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in so short a time. Isn't that true? Whether we want to hear it or not, and whether we will admit it or not, those whom the Lord has appointed parents over us, and be they biological,
• 8:05
  or spiritual parents, because the Lord is also faithful to provide us with spiritual parents as well. Maybe you didn't have great biological parents who had understanding and wisdom, but nobody walks through this life without the offer of spiritual parents. Our Lord is faithful to provide us with spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers to whom we can go for advice when we don't know what to do. Whether we will admit it or not, those parents, be they biological or spiritual, they typically give good advice.
• 8:37
  And I would tell us this, and especially for those who are young in the room, for those, I'm going to say, under the age of 20, okay, if you're still in that category, young adult, young man, young woman, high school, junior high, and on down, if you're still the baby being held by your mommy right now, listen, beware of the advice that you receive from people who have never sacrificed for you. The people who gave you your last name are the ones with skin in the game.
• 9:10
  They will be the ones who pick you up when you fail. They will. And Solomon says, the wisdom of our parents, you'll notice, if followed, will grace our heads and necks. Look at verse 9. For they, now the they refers back to father's instruction and mother's teaching. They, that instruction and teaching, are a graceful garland for your head, and they are pendants for your necks. Solomon's sons would be kings.
• 9:40
  They would one day wear crowns on their heads, but they should still heed their father's advice. You can imagine King Solomon looking at his young sons and saying, please listen to my instruction. Don't fail the same ways that I did. Don't go down the same roads that I walked. Learn from my mistakes. And you can imagine him looking into the eyes of a young man, the young crown prince. Do you remember who this would be?
• 10:10
  the man who would follow Solomon on the throne. You guys recall his name? Who was that? It wasn't Jeroboam. It was Rehoboam. It was the other guy, right? Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, would one day sit on his father's throne. And was Rehoboam a wise man or a fool? He was a fool. Rehoboam was the man who was eventually crowned king and after the coronation gathered his father's counselors together. Do you remember this?
• 10:42
  He gathers all of his father's advisors and he says, what would you say? What do you think I should do? And all of his father's advisors, those who had given instruction to Solomon, right? Told him, be good to the people. Be easy on them. In fact, give them a tax break. Let them have a year off from paying taxes. And I'm telling you, King Rehoboam, they will love you until the day they die. They will lay down their lives for you.
• 11:13
  Be easy on the people. Rehoboam, not heeding their advice, then went to who? His friends. Do you guys remember the story? He goes to his friends. It even says young friends. He went to his young friends. He called them all in. What do you guys think I should do? Man, those old guys don't know what they're talking about. You need to be hard with them. You need to show them who's boss. You want to be a great king? Show them day one what to expect. Show them.
• 11:45
  That your father's waist is like your thumb. That's how big I am. Show him who's king. And he went with his friend's advice, right? And what happened? Disaster. People rebelled. Ten of the tribes even were lost. That's when Jeroboam shows up. He says, I'll lead you instead. This man wasn't even from the line of kings. He had no business being on the throne.
• 12:13
  Jeroboam shows up and says, I will lead you. And from that moment forward, the kingdom is divided. You know, it was never reunited. Those 10 northern tribes were lost. The Assyrians came and destroyed them. Intermingled with them, they were gone. That group of people eventually became the Samaritans, considered to be half-breed Jews, not even allowed to worship in the temple, right? Jesus' conversation with that woman at Shechem in Samaria was significant.
• 12:39
  Right? Man, maybe kind of the leftover northern tribes, they were gone. You know, to this day, those northern tribes are still gone. The kingdom is still divided. Romans 11, Revelation says there will be a day when the king comes back and will reestablish his throne and that kingdom of Jews will be reunited. But even now, 3,000 years after Rehoboam lived, 3,000 years, that kingdom has still been divided because he would not heed his father's instructions.
• 13:10
  He says they will grace your head like a crown. Forget the crown. You want a real crown? Consider your father's instruction. Consider your mother's teaching. And notice it says pendants for your neck. Now the neck throughout scripture is a symbol of submission to authority. The submissive neck, that is the neck that bows to authority, is often set against the stiff neck. What is the symbol of pride and rebellion? One of the greatest sermons that I think has ever been preached.
• 13:42
  Is Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7. In about 50 some verses. He preaches. He would become the first Christian martyr. He preaches the entirety of the Old Testament. Culminating in the life of Christ. And at the end of it. Because they reject him. And begin to throw stones at him. He says at the end of Acts chapter 7. You stiff necked people. You stiff necked people. Unwilling to believe what you've been taught. Stiff.
• 14:11
  Necked, unwilling to turn, unwilling to look any other way. I get the picture of, you know, when I was a younger dad, my boys were younger, even now with Chase sometimes, who's nine, if we're in a crowd and everybody's kind of intermingling, there's people going everywhere. You know, the Dodgers have just beaten the Rockies at Coors Field and everybody's all leaving all at the same time. You know, he's walking in front of me. I'll grab his little shoulders, you know.
• 14:38
  And I'll just make sure that he's going the direction I need him to go. Grab his little shoulders or I'll put my hand on the back of his neck and I'm just kind of guiding and directing gently. And there are times you can imagine a boy like that not wanting to be turned and pushing against, bristling against his father who is gently guiding him the direction he needs to go. A stiff neck says this will be a pendant for your neck. And the one who learns early in life to submit,
• 15:08
  To parental authority is the one who will learn to be submissive to all authority, including the Lord. So I'm going to say something that has become horribly unpopular in our culture. You ready? Children, obey your parents in the Lord. It's right. It's good. Obey your parents in the Lord. You say, well, Pastor Danny, is it really that big a deal? Come on.
• 15:39
  Yes. Turn in your Bibles. We're going to come back to Proverbs. Turn your Bibles to 2 Timothy, if you would. 2 Timothy 3. I want you guys to turn. I want you to see it in your Bibles, especially for you guys who are young. Look at these words. Heed Scripture's advice. 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. You'll notice the caption right above says, Godlessness in the last days. Verse 1. But understand this.
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  That in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive. What's the next one? Disobedient to their parents? Boy, that seems overstated. That seems out of place.
• 16:32
  Look at the rest of the list. Ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Man, you look at that list and then ask, is it really that big a deal to disobey your parents?
• 16:58
  It's listed in the worst possible list. You want to know what it's going to be like on earth in the last days during times of difficulty? That word for difficulty is the same word as tribulation. When trial comes, you want to know what it's going to be like? People will go so far as to even disobey their parents.
• 17:19
  They will rage against each other, ungrateful, unholy, slanderous, no self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless. Can you imagine lovers of pleasure, lovers of themselves, lovers of money rather than lovers of God? Now you notice I didn't finish verse 5, right? Look back down at verse 5. There are three words I left off. What are they? You guys see it in your Bibles? What's it say? Avoid. Avoid such people. And if I can just...
• 17:51
  Make a plea to you who are young especially. And it may be, you know, if you think I'm out of my mind, that's okay. Just make this the last thing you ever hear from me. Don't become friends with those who disobey their parents. Avoid them, it says. Don't become friends with them. Why? Because that end is disaster. It's disaster. Just like Rehoboam who rejected his father's counsel, divided the kingdom. Avoid, it says, such people.
• 18:24
  We'll go back to Proverbs chapter 1. And one more note I'll make about this title that he uses when he calls his hearers his sons. Hear my son. And just a promise that I'm going to give. When Solomon begins his book with the words my son, he issues a promise to anybody who would listen. He as a father is making a vow to walk with his sons whether they follow his advice or not. Notice these are not students.
• 18:54
  These are not just strangers. Hear, O stranger, your father's instruction. He doesn't say that as if you can either take my advice or not take my advice. Makes no difference to me because I'm not even going to have any relationship with you anyway. He doesn't say that. He says, my son, this is an unchanging relationship. It is a relationship of promise. Listen, son, whether you follow the rest of these 31 chapters or not, I will still be.
• 19:22
  Your father and young people, the same is true of your earthly parents. You will not cease being our sons and daughters if you fall, if you reject our counsel. Our love for you will not stop if you don't take our advice. I would plead with you to listen to us and learn from us, but never think that our love is contingent on your obedience. My son, a great way to start the book. Notice second, the promise.
• 19:52
  Of the wicked man. Look at verse 10. My son, the promise of the wicked man. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Let like shield, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit. If sinners entice you, he says, if they say.
• 20:21
  Come with us. The invitation to sin, you'll notice in verse 11, is cast broadly. It is announced loudly. And I find to my own shame that sinners are much better evangelists than am I. I notice that I am much more frequently invited into sin than I am willing to invite others out of it. I've noticed.
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  That sinners on the broad path on their way to destruction are much more willing to invite me to come with them than I am to invite them to come with me. In Matthew chapter 7, the Lord Jesus warned that every man and woman is on one of two roads. Every single human on the planet. One road is narrow. If you find it, it leads to eternal life. The other is broad. Many walk on it. It leads to destruction. And here we find in verse 10.
• 21:15
  Those standing on that broad road calling back to anyone who would listen for them to join their journey toward oblivion. And you'll notice the invitation that they make. Three let us statements, which in verses 13 and 14 will be followed by three promises. Three we shall statements. Let us, verse 11, lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent. Let us swallow them alive.
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  They say, whoa, an invitation to murder? That seems a little drastic. John Phillips says it this way, who would have thought when opening the book of Proverbs that full-grown sin would leap so aggressively and untamably from the first page? We would have expected kind of an easing in to the deep end of the pool. We would have expected Solomon.
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  to describe something like a gradual progression of sin, like a toddler's temper tantrum. The two-year-old doesn't get his way. And so he stomps and pouts and cries, right? And he throws this little temper tantrum, which when they're really little is cute moments. Like, man, I think it's so cute that you think you're so important, right? That your opinion matters so much. It just doesn't. I'm sorry.
• 22:46
  which would eventually grow into a child who maybe would lie and deceive. The six-year-old who gets caught drawing with his crayons on the walls, but who blames the newborn laying in the crib. Wasn't me, mommy. It was him, right? He's very advanced for his age. Followed maybe by a teenage.
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  A teenager who's shoplifting or who quarrels with their friends, eventually growing into an angry, vengeful young man or woman who is always involved in fights, followed by repeated acts of vandalism and violence, culminating ultimately into full-grown, premeditated murder. But that is not what Solomon does. He jumps straight into the deep end. And you say, well, why would he do that? Why start with the worst? And I think it's because it must be assumed.
• 23:42
  That full grown sin began with baby sin. Baby sin eventually grows into full grown sin. The eventual end of every small sin is big sin. And so Solomon just cuts straight to the chase. And he says, listen, it all ends there. And if that's not the road you want to be on, then back that truck all the way up.
• 24:15
  and kill the small sin in your life. In fact, I think he is making an argument to say that there is no such thing as small sin. And this is why the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount equated lustful thoughts, what we would consider to be small, small sin. But he said, if you don't think that's that big a deal,
• 24:40
  It's the same as committing adultery because that's where that sin, that baby sin, that's where it ends up. That's what it grows up to be. Anger, not that. We've all been angry. I mean, what's the big deal? Don't beat yourself up about it. You got angry once. You know, you called somebody a fool. I mean, what's the big? It's murder. That baby sin eventually grows into full-grown sin. Small compromises will always end.
• 25:08
  In big compromises, small yeses to sin, apart from the grace of God, left unchecked will always end in big yeses to sin. Rabbi Zechariah said this, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go. It will keep you longer than you wanted to stay. And it will cost you more than you wanted to pay. And beware, beloved church, beware of invitations to small sin because it never ends there.
• 25:37
  Beware the voice that preaches that sin is not a big deal or that you can handle it. That voice is not the Lord's. There's the promise. Notice here, there's the invitation. Now let's look at the promise. Verses 13 and 14. Three, we shall statements. 13, we shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. We find that their invitation is.
• 26:04
  To murder is followed by a promise of money, a promise of easy money, even if it's ill-gotten, is difficult to resist. Pure and unadulterated greed will destroy. The love of money we find truly is the root of all kinds of evil, even the evil of murder. There's the promise of the wicked man. Now let's notice last the peril that awaits that wicked man. Notice last the peril in verse 15. My son, do not walk in the way with them.
• 26:37
  Hold back your foot from their paths. For their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed blood. You'll notice I'm putting emphasis on walk and foot and feet. We'll come back to that. Verse 17. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird. But these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Now Solomon's use of the term foot is significant. And certainly it's a reflection of Psalm 1. When his father, King David, would write poetry and set it to music. And we have.
• 27:09
  Our Psalms, Psalm 1, undoubtedly would have read that. And it says, In other words, King David says where your feet are matters. Who you walk with matters. Don't walk with wicked people. Don't even stand in their way. We can recall from the book of Galatians that a man's walk actually represents his entire life. Let's turn there, if you would. Galatians in chapter 5.
• 27:40
  Galatians chapter 5. If you guys have your Bibles, you can turn there. I want to point out, I want to connect some dots in the book of Galatians for us this morning. Galatians chapter 5, beginning in verse 16. Notice some phrases. I just want to tie these things together. He's making an argument for what life in the Spirit is like. He says in verse 16, but I say, walk by the Spirit. There it is again. Your feet, right? Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
• 28:12
  Look down at verse 18. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Look down at verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Now look down at verse 25. If we live by the Spirit.
• 28:34
  There it is, life in the spirit. Life involves walking. Life involves being led. Life involves manifesting the fruit of the spirit. If we live by the spirit, look at how 25 ends. Let us also, what does it say? Keep in step. Walking with the spirit is not just where you put your feet. It's your entire life. How you walk matters. Walking by the spirit or walking by the flesh. We'll go back to Proverbs 1.
• 29:04
  When in verse 15, Solomon tells his son, don't walk in their way. Hold back your foot from their paths for their feet run to evil. That's what he's talking about. Live by the spirit. Walk in the spirit. Be careful where you put your feet and who you walk with. Your walk represents your spiritual success. And according to the book of Proverbs, the success of your walk.
• 29:30
  can be determined, make sure you hear this, the success of your walk can be determined by the company you keep. If you're walking with believers, with those who have been filled with the Spirit, church, you cannot stray. You can't go wrong. I can't even tell you how thankful I am when in our younger years, when Hallie and I were in our 20s, we were just married, how thankful I am for the friends that we had. Because all of them went to church.
• 30:03
  And so we went to church. All of them prayed together. And so we prayed. All of them raised their kids with a certain mindset and a certain set of values. We had very distinct, we had high hopes and high expectations for our kids to the point that we trusted each other so much that it was like, you can help to parent my kids. We're all doing it the same. You can correct them gently if they're doing something wrong. Please do. I can't be there all the time. If my son is spending the night at your son's house,
• 30:35
  You best tell him if he's involved in something he shouldn't be involved in, right? I mean, it was such a, I can't even tell you guys the blessing of it. It's almost like we were just kind of dumb and happy being led along on the road to the Lord's will. I mean, it was, it almost felt like it was apart from us. Now, certainly we had a hand in that decisions that we made and whatever else, but I'm telling you, we were walking with people doing it right. And so we did it right.
• 31:02
  My default position, can I just confess to you, my default position is not to be with the people of God. It's not what I ache for and thirst for and hunger for. It wasn't in my 20s. It is now. I've developed that and grown in maturity, and I love it, you guys. I love being at church. I love it. If you guys wanted to meet every night, that's what I would do. I would say yes. Maybe not every night. Anytime, anytime the Dodgers are not being televised, if you guys wanted to meet, hang out.
• 31:34
  Right? Yes, we want to be with the people of God. But guys, when I was in my 20s, that's not what I wanted. In fact, I had to be held accountable to be in fellowship. Held accountable. Can you imagine that? A pastor? How to be held accountable. There was a point in my life where it was a very good thing that I had the keys to the church because everybody was relying on me to be there. Right? It's automatic. It's built in accountability. You better show up. You got the keys.
• 32:06
  Right? If you're going with the people who are doing it right, guess what's going to happen? You're going to do it right. The opposite is also true. If you're surrounding yourself with the world, if you're beginning to hang out with the world and value the world and be influenced by the world, eventually you will begin to think like the world. You will think like them. You will act like them. You will become like them. Your spiritual success, he says, will be determined by the company you keep. So consider the company you keep.
• 32:36
  Are they sanctifying you? Consider your three closest friends. Do those friends spur you on toward love and good needs? Think about the people you spend the most time with, the people you talk to most often. Go back through and just quantify the number of text messages you send and receive and get the top three. Who do I text the most? And who texts me back? Who do I go to for advice?
• 33:03
  To whom have I given a voice in my life? Who is a counselor of mine? Do those top three know the word? Do they speak the word? Are they truth tellers? If you're not succeeding spiritually, the problem is your friends. James chapter four, verse four says, it is impossible to be friends with the world and yet friends with God. Impossible. Now you say, well, does that mean that we can't have non-believing friends? Of course not. Of course you should have non-believing friends. The Bible does not call us to a life of monasticism.
• 33:37
  Right? Isolation. Us four no more, shut the door. That's not it. We're called to live in the world, but not to be a part of the world. We're called to evangelize. We're called to build bridges. You should be friends with people who don't know the Lord, because otherwise, who are you sharing the gospel with? Of course you should. But we must not determine our values from them. We must not allow our thinking to be influenced by them. We must not define.
• 34:08
  or redefine our truth by theirs to determine our existence by theirs. And why? Because their end will always be the same. And look at verse 19. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. They're alive, but they don't truly live. Their lives are hollow. No life of abundance. This section of scripture finds a perfect parallel in the life of Christ. I love it.
• 34:38
  The traitor Judas found friendship among the enemies of Christ, even stealing away at times from Christ's company in order to plot and to scheme against the Lord. Judas eventually betrayed the Lord to murder and all for the promise of money. And he, like the proverb promised, eventually lost his own life because of his greed. And although on Friday, Christ was in the ground and Judas was alive, by Sunday, the Lord was alive and Judas.
• 35:10
  in the ground. We live in a world of a million voices. It is true. But despite popular opinion and despite what we've been told and despite what may even feel good or right, some beliefs are wrong. Some lifestyles bring only hurt. There is some advice and some advice givers who are wrong. Let us trust. Let us trust the Lord's word when it speaks. Amen. God, thank you again for your truth and for your word. And Lord, may we.
• 35:42
  May we change our lives according to it. God, give us favor outside of the church and with unbelievers. I pray, Lord, that we would develop true, genuine, and really loving relationships with our neighbors, be they our actual neighbors next door or down the street or our coworkers or friends or family members who don't know you. God, may we find favor with them so that they would hear the gospel and be saved. Lord, that's what we want. We want them to walk in newness of life.
• 36:10
  We want them to have joy and peace and hope the way that we do. And God, may we be salt and light to them and not the other way around. May we influence and not be influenced. May we be committed to the truth and speaking the truth. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.