Ecclesiastes 9:13-11:6 - The pursuit of Wisdom

What a time of worship it was this morning church.

You know I've been away the last two weeks, away last week with

family. The week before was New Day, my

first one back. What a time.

I'm sure if you want to find out all about it you could come and

ask me, but I suggest you go ask Grace and Savannah at the end

and see what they thought of the week.

But it was a brilliant time. But boy do I miss being in this

place on a Sunday when we worship together.

The Spirit just comes in a in a way unlike.

And it was so clear this morning that the Lord is moving and

getting ready for revival to come.

And he's staring and rather nicely.

It fits quite well. My title for today is The

Pursuit of Wisdom. But I've actually added to that

because as my mum commented in the week, I like to think quite

deeply. And so out of that comes the

meaning in life and the cool. I'm actually going to start

though, with last week where Ian spoke and Ian spoke about death

coming for us all. Maybe that's a sobering,

sobering reality and you've forgotten all about that, that

life is short. But I actually want to start

with the last verses that were in Ian's section.

Ecclesiastes 9 versus 11 to 12. Reasons I have seen something

else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or

the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or

wealth to the brilliant, or favour to the learned, but time

and chance will happen to them all.

Moreover, no one knows when that hour will come.

As fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a

snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall

unexpectedly upon them. See none of us know when our

time will come. This has been the whole message

throughout Ecclesiastes up until this point.

Obviously we've been going through it in this series and

the phrase that is repeated over and over again is life is

meaningless. That it will come to an end and

like a vapour, that's what the the word in Hebrew means.

It translates more towards vapour that life will disappear.

And this can be quite humbling. Leave us in a state of confusion

about what should we do with the world if it's all going to go.

Why does it? Why does it matter?

What is the point of life? But thankfully we have now got

to the point in Ecclesiastes where Solomon, the preacher

throughout Ecclesiastes is going to try and give us some help of

how to go through this and how to deal with it.

But before I really get going, I'm just going to pray.

Father, may you fall. May my words not be my own, but

be from you. Father, I pray for every ear in

this room, every heart. May it listen.

Lord, I pray that we turn to you and seek your face more.

May no one leave this room the same as they entered today.

And may this word sit on the heart longer than just a couple

of hours. Lord, may it be one that stays

for time. In your name we pray, Amen.

See this is a big question to answer.

Is the meaning of life. I mean, we're here for most of

us, sixty 7080 years. It's quite a long time, it feels

like sometimes, but we have to challenge this meaning of life.

So I'm going to dive straight into my verses.

I start in Ecclesiastes 9 chapter, verses 13 to 18.

I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly

impressed me. There was once a small city with

only a few people in it, and a powerful king came against it,

surrounded it, and built huge siege works against it.

Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved

the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor

man. So I said, wisdom is better than

strength. But the poor man's wisdom is

despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the

shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of

war, but one Sinner destroys much good.

See at this point, Solomon has tried basically everything you

can think of in life to find meaning to to find value, to

find worth, but nothing has done it.

And So what we start to see now in the upcoming scriptures that

I'm going to dive through and that but starting right here is

one thing that can be rest and peace is wisdom.

And it, it, it's described quite weirdly.

See, in this example, we see a small city.

Maybe it's easy to picture Blackpool.

Maybe for others, the comparison to the seas could compare to

Gaza right now. And in this moment, we see a

powerful king has trapped and seized out the city and things

like dull, you know, using knowledge.

If the city seized, there's probably no water, no food, and

they're running out of supplies. It looks really dire.

But a poor, unknown man who had wisdom saved the entire city.

No strong man, maybe. You'd think you'd want a Goliath

in your army to go out and fight away this army.

But a poor, unknown, wise man saved the whole city.

Yet he's quickly forgotten. He wasn't seen as memorable.

See the end of those verses? Ecclesiastes 9 verse 17 says the

Ecclesiastes 9:17

quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of

a ruler of fools. See, often what we find is

wisdom is quite quiet. It's not a shouting loud obvious

word. A couple of years ago during the

lockdown, there was a really popular game that I used to play

with my friends called Among Us. See, in this game, if you're not

familiar, you get dropped onto a ship with a team and they're

called the cremates, but there is one or two impostors who are

there to kill the crew mates, and the crew mates job is to

figure out who the impostors are before they've killed the whole

shit. Now the game is great fun, but

often what would happen is you can see something and you know

it's true and it could be wise. And so you a meeting gets called

and you go to say this and all of a sudden somebody with a bit

of misinformation shouts. They're really loud.

They're saying you did it and you know you're not the killer

because you've seen something else.

But often the loud person and the fastest to speak, the

loudest to speak was the one listened to.

But this isn't always where wisdom come from.

Now I want to clear up at this point.

Wisdom can also sometimes be loud.

Wisdom is sometimes obvious. If you go to Blackpool Zoo later

today, do not jump in the lines enclosure.

That is a really obvious thing and that's very wise not to do.

But often we see that wisdom is quiet and it brings safety and

and a lack of trouble. I've just remembered I forgot to

put my timer on. I'm going to do that now just.

But we continue to see that wisdom is what saves strife and

trouble. And this is what Solomon is

really getting at at this point, is that life is meaningless.

So to cope with life being meaningless, we should enact

wisdom. See in the next chapter

Ecclesiastes 10 verses 3 to 4. We read Even as fools walk along

Ecclesiastes 10:3–4

the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they

are. If a ruler's anger rises against

you, do not leave your post. Calmness can lay great offences

to rest. See, in being wise and waiting

in confrontation and taking time to think through what you say,

it can often save a whole argument.

We see this biblically in One Samuel chapter 25, where Nabal

is being chased by King David and King David goes to to go and

kill Nabal, but Nabal's wife Abigail calms David down.

Abigail sets off, takes some gifts, and goes and sees David.

And in talking and a bit of wisdom and calm, David's anger

against Nabal is laid to rest. And David is so grateful for

Abigail's calmness and wisdom in the situation.

To make it personal. Gus continued to teach me about

this. And while I was at New Day, I

got a pretty good example. See, it was getting towards the

back end of the week. We came into the big top and we

had one or two people in our group coming down a little later

on. So we'd save them some space.

And all of a sudden, another youth leader comes up to comes

up to us, and she says you need to move so all my youth can sit

down together. And I thought, oh, this is

interesting. Now she at this point was like,

you can't save space. You can't have people come sit

down. So Lizzie at this point merely

pointed out that there were many other groups with big tarpaulin

sheets down saving space. But the youth leader wasn't

having it. She wanted her youth group to

sit together at the front, which I can understand, but her tone

and her attitude was quite harsh.

And in my moment I found myself wanting to say jog on mate, like

this is our space, we got here first.

What do you mean move up? But the Lord had been working

and He brought this first to mind actually.

And I was reminded that calmness seizes situations and calms them

down and that also I am not perfect, that throughout the

week, even while serving, I'm not perfect.

Particularly towards the back end of the week, leaders can get

tired and can get Aggie. And so I stepped in and with

grace, I said, we'll move up a little bit.

And all of a sudden that was the last of the problem.

It it died down and we moved up a bit.

They fit in, we fit in. Everybody was happy.

We continue to see wisdom coming through in Ecclesiastes 10.

It's compiled if the axis door and it's edge unsharpened.

More strength is needed, but skill will bring success.

See in wisdom, before you go and axe down a tree, sharpen it

first. Because otherwise if you take a

dull blade and you try and chop down a tree, you're going to

require more strength. So the wise thing to do is spend

a few minutes beforehand sharpening your blade before you

go and do it. Ecclesiastes 10/12 works with

the last example. Words from the mouth are the

wise, like gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips.

I'm aware at this point, but I'm rapidly jumping between

Scriptures and Ecclesiastes. I've got a rather large and

weird cut of Ecclesiastes to talk from today, so I don't have

time to read it all. So I want to urge you go and

read it. Check everything that I say

today from here as being true. Just because I've got a mic by

my mouth doesn't mean that I'm automatically correct.

So go and speak to the Lord, spend time in your secret place

and ensure this is true. See again, we see this

gracefulness about wisdom. And as I read through these

scriptures, I was touched and moved by wisdom.

See, as we read before a king seizes a city, the foolish aloud

and walked poorly, and there's chaos in every action and

situation. Yet the thing that shines

through every time is wisdom. But it's not loud, it's not

strong. It cuts through with a serenity,

with a beauty unlike anything. See, as I walk through my life,

I'm sure I've had conversations with many of you and you tend to

call me a bit young. And I I recognise that I'm

younger than a lot of people in the room, but I find myself

asking the Lord as I walk through my life.

Lord, give me more wisdom. I have a heart to pastor sheep

and see people looked after. And so for me, I desire more

wisdom, more knowledge of the Lord.

And this is biblical as well. We see it in Two Chronicles 1

See, God meets with Solomon and he says to Solomon, and bearing

in mind, Solomon is the voice that we've heard through our

Ecclesiastes. And he says, Solomon, ask of me

anything you want and I'll I'll give it to you.

I wonder at this point what I'd pick if God asked me.

I'll give you anything you want. What would I pick?

I I don't know, and maybe you don't know either, but in this

moment, Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge to lead God's

people, and God grants it. See, this should really start to

show the value that comes with wisdom.

See being offered anything as any amount Solomon picks wisdom

that should show how valuable it is.

And Solomon even describes it really beautifully in Proverbs 3

and he's he describes wisdom as she is more precious than

Ruby's. Nothing you desire can compare

with her. And it's not just in Solomon and

in the in two Chronicles where we see wisdom being applied.

We see it in Hosea, but for the opposite reasons.

We read that God's people are destroyed for a lack of

knowledge. Because you have rejected

knowledge, I also, God says, reject you as my priest.

Because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore

your children. This is serious.

Wisdom and knowledge are serious.

We so often can brush them off and think that's not an

important topic. But there's a weight to this.

And this ultimately is what Ecclesiastes is getting at is

what is the meaning of life and how do we walk life well?

So at this point, let's have a discussion about what is wisdom.

See, if you look in the Dictionary of Cambridge or

Roxford, it'll describe wisdom as having or showing experience,

knowledge, and good judgement. But in many ways, this doesn't

actually get us where we need to be.

See what is experienced knowledge and a good judgement

to me might be different to what is for skip or for you or to the

person that sat next to you. See, it's subjective.

So what we need to do at this point is root ourselves into

biblical scripture and anchor ourselves.

And so the best place that I can define wisdom is in Proverbs,

the book before Ecclesiastes, and it's also written by

Solomon. I referenced it before, but I'm

actually going to read an extended part of Proverbs 3.

So maybe you want to turn to Proverbs 3 now if you want to

follow along, it will come up on the screen, but it will be quite

small. I'm going to read through

Proverbs 3. But as I read this, I want you

to really listen and hear what is being said, what Solomon is

saying, because ultimately this lines up as a checklist for

living a life with wisdom. Proverbs 3 says My son, do not

forget my teaching but keep my commands in your heart, for they

will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and

prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never

leave you. Bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Then you will win favour and a good name.

Insight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your

heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways.

Submit to Him and He will make your pastrate.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil.

This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your

bones. Honour the Lord with your wealth

with the first fruit of all your crops.

Then your barns will be filled to overflow in, and your vats

will be brim over with new wine. My son, do not despise the

Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the

Lord discipline those he loves as a father, the Son he

delights. Blessed are those who find

wisdom, those who gain understanding.

For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns

than gold. She's more precious than rubies.

Nothing you desire can compare with her long life is in her

right hand. In her left hand that are riches

and honour. Her ways are pleasant ways, and

all her paths are peace. She's a tree of life to those

who take hold of her. Those who hold her fast will be

blessed. By wisdom of the Lord delayed

the earth's foundations. By understanding He set the

heavens in place. By His knowledge the watery

depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the drew.

My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight.

Preserve sound judgement and discretion.

There will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.

Then you will go on your way in safety.

Your foot will not stumble when you lie down.

You will not be afraid when you lie down.

Your sleep will be sweet. Have No Fear of sudden disaster

or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be at

your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

Now that may be long, but it is a wonderful description with

some very practical points of what it is to be wise to live

with wisdom in mind. See, we can see checkpoints.

Do not leave God's teaching. Walk in love and faithfulness.

It says bind them around your neck and write them on your

heart. Trust in God with all your

heart, mind and understanding. Fear God and shun evil.

See, these are very basic steps if you want to practically live

this out in your day-to-day life, this biblical wisdom, you

should get familiar with this scripture and use it to check

back. How am I doing?

Am I walking in love and faithfulness?

Am I keeping in line with God's teachings?

Am I keeping in line with His laws?

See, when you do this, what you'll start to notice is you

start to become more Christ like.

You'll start to live like Jesus. And if you still haven't grasped

it yet, that's OK. But the pursuit of wisdom is the

pursuit of Jesus because wisdom and Jesus are the same.

And there's a very famous parable that tells us it's

Matthew 7 verses 24 to 27. Therefore everyone who hears

Matthew 7:24–27

these words of mine and puts them into practise is like a

wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its

foundations on the rock. But everyone who hears these

words of mine and does not put them into practise is like a

foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.

See, to be wise, to live in wisdom, is to do as Jesus has

called, to build your life upon the rock, to build your life on

Jesus. See, at this point I want to

clarify as well, you are not guaranteed as a Christian to

live without struggle, to live without trial.

In fact, this parable guarantees that we will see both.

What is the same for both men who build on the rock and who

builds on the sand is that rain came, winds blew, streams rose,

but what was different was their foundations and where they were

rooted in. And it if we flashback all the

way to to last week Ecclesiastes 911 or 12, one or the two says

time and chance happened to them all.

You can't guarantee anything in this life.

This is what has been got at. So we are called to anchor

ourselves into the rock, into Jesus.

And there's a specific reason for that.

See, when we anchor into the rock, the life here that is

meaningless. All of a sudden we start to hold

less tightly to as we fix our eyes on Jesus.

And This is why it's so important to fix our eyes on

Jesus. Hebrews 12 verses one to three

says. Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off

everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,

and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of the

faith. For the joy set before him, He

endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right

hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such

opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose

heart. See, even in the midst of trial

and heartache, we can go on and keep pushing when our eyes are

fixed on Jesus, when we're built on the rock, because he's first

endured. See, that's what is so powerful

about the cross. Not only does He take away our

sin, our shame, our guilt, our mistakes, it's also the example

for us to keep on pushing through and to keep our eyes

fixed on him. And that is ultimately what

Ecclesiastes is calling for us to do at the start of this

verse. It says let us throw off

everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

It's so easy while we walk in this world to grasp onto things

that we see and to to stay stuck and worry about them.

But we read in Matthew, start to build up.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where Moss

and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where Moss

and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in

and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will also be. All of a sudden.

If we start walking out in biblical wisdom, being built on

the rock with our eyes fixed on Jesus, things that entangle and

go wrong in this life won't won't start to matter as much.

When stress comes, we won't worry.

When that job promotion doesn't come for you, it'll be OK

because you trust in God's plan. When that that month you're

tight on finances and you don't know how you're going to get by,

you stay vision, your eyes are fixed on Jesus and it starts to

fold and see. As we keep our eyes on Jesus,

what starts to happen is we become more like him.

We're moulded and sanctified into His image, and we start to

walk better. Therefore we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being

renewed day by day. For our light and momentary

troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs

them all. So we fix our eyes not on what

is seen, but what on what is unseen, since what is seen is

temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Paul says it. We're all wasting away, our

bodies are decaying, we're all heading towards death.

That much is inevitable. As Ian said, death is coming.

But if we fix our eyes on Jesus, all of a sudden our priorities

are matters. They will change, not us, our

priorities. If it feels like the verses are

saying similar things, good. Because this is what the

instruction to the early church was.

That struggle and these times will come, but if we stay fixed

with our eyes on Jesus that they'll pass by.

See, This is why this series of Ecclesiastes is so important.

It reminds us that life is temporary.

It is so important for us to be reminded that one day all of

this will be gone. Everything that you do, your

work, your everything will fade away.

But it is a reminder that therefore, if we fix our eyes on

Jesus and start building for him, it won't fade and our value

will be placed in eternal glory. We'll start building up heavenly

treasures. Paul says it outwardly, wasting

away, and we'll face troubles, but they're achieving in US

eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Church. Last time I spoke, I asked you

about a question about death, and I'm going to do it again.

When you die, what will be said about you?

We had this weird thing in the week.

It's birthdays around about now in our family and to celebrate.

And a tradition that was introduced from our American

side of the family was that after singing Happy Birthday,

you go round the table and you say something that you admire

and like about the person whose birthday it is.

Because they realise that often far too late, we don't say those

things, that it's often too late.

But in the same way, that was a reminder that one day this will

all be gone. That one day you won't be here

and people will only be able to say what you've built and talk

about you in the past. And so the question is, church,

what are you building for? What are your eyes fixed on?

Where are your materials going to?

Where's your time and energy going to?

Because not only will we pass away, but Matthew 24 even tells

us that heaven and earth will pass away too.

And if we learn that heaven and earth will pass away, then how

much more will what we do? So all of a sudden, that game

that you want to get, that time you want to spend scrolling

social media, it's worthless. Do you know church?

A time is coming where Lionel Messi will not be remembered.

A time is coming where Donald Trump will not be remembered.

There's a time coming where the person on your left and your

right will not be remembered. You will not be remembered.

IA time is coming where I will not be remembered.

My name will be gone and it all have faded.

So what are you building for? Some of my favourite pieces of

scripture reference this Acts 2024.

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the

Lord Jesus has given to me, the task of testifying to the good

news of God's grace. Philippians 3 verses 8 to 10

Philippians 3:8–10

says. What is more, I consider

everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord, for who's sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in

Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the

law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the

righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His

resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like

Him in His death. I edited my slides at the start,

the title slide, it changed. Then it said the meaning of

life. I added the meaning of life, the

meaning of life. Church, why we are all here is

to serve His Kingdom, to build for His Kingdom and that is what

wisdom is. Wisdom is to focus on Jesus.

That is the wise thing to do in every situation.

Now we can break wisdom down into different events, different

times where wisdom has specific points and specific

applications. But I assure you, overall, if

your eyes are fixed on Jesus and that is your wisdom choice, then

you're safe. Paul says it for to me, to live

is Christ and to die is game. If I'm going to go on living in

the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.

Yet what shall I choose? I do not know.

I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with

Christ. Which is better?

By far. Paul shows it potentially as

clear as it possibly can be. As a Christian, we should desire

to be in heaven with Jesus that one day.

That is where our eyes should be fixed.

That is the ultimate purpose because even Paul said it, it is

better by far to go and be with Jesus.

But just after these verses Paul says, but you need me, so I'm

going to stay and I'm going to serve.

See, it's this fruitful labour part, while this life here is

meaningless, He knows the Lord still has work and still has

things for him to do. So in the midst of the

meaningless, he will serve Jesus fruitfully.

This means that we need to be ready like worship charge this

morning us to do, to go out and see.

Sol says to see this town changed.

The things that grip this town right now in drugs, alcohol,

sex, betting, gambling, they will all fall in Jesus name.

But we have to be willing to go out and win it and we can't do

that by power or by might, but only by His spirit.

One of my favourite worship songs at the moment has a bridge

and I think it it's fitting. If the highest place I reach is

at your feet then I've done it all.

If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, then I've seen it

all. Your love has changed my life.

I'm forever satisfied. God, you are my everything.

If one word is the only thing you speak, then I've heard it

all. If I feel your heart and never

see your hand, I've still had it all.

So if I just get a taste, a drop of your heart, and I don't even

see your provision and your faithfulness in this life, I've

still had everything I need. No treasure of this life could

ever satisfy God. You are my everything.

See, the only thing that will bring meaning and worth and the

only thing that wisdom can suggest that makes this life

bearable is Jesus and keeping your eyes fixed on Him.

So at this moment I want to give an opportunity to respond to

those for who maybe have never accepted Jesus into your heart

as Lord and Saviour. Maybe you have realised today as

we've been talking that oh wow, everything that I'm doing is

going to go. I'm my treasure, I'm building

treasures on earth and not in heaven, and I want to give my

life to Jesus. So I'm going to lead in prayer.

If it's you, follow along. You can pray what I say in your

own head, but please then tell somebody afterwards.

We want to share in this joy. Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for my sin

and my mistakes. Lord, I, I admit that I've done

wrong. Lord, I'm sorry for building up

earthly treasure. Father, I, I need you and your

love. Thank you that you died for me.

Jesus, I accept your sacrifice for me on the cross, and I turn

and fix my eyes on you. But Lord, I need your help.

Help me fix my eyes on you in Jesus name, Amen.

But we're not finished there. We've got a challenge church for

for us as Christians. Now, if you've just prayed that

prayer, that includes you too. But where can we, like Paul, go

and serve wholeheartedly and fruitfully?

If I am to go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful

labour for me. I think I I want to say that

maybe the word labour scares you.

Maybe it makes you think about hard work.

But that's not what Paul found. Paul was so excited to go and be

with Jesus, but he was so excited to serve and see the

law's plans come on this earth. What ground can you go and sow

into church? Where is God calling you to and

what is he calling for you to give up?

See, we're going to spend a minute in a minute praying.

And I believe the Lord's going to speak and reveal to everybody

what he wants from you. See, maybe it's a sacrifice.

Maybe it's time for you to stop building for earthy treasure and

start building for heavenly treasure.

Even if you've accepted Jesus before, maybe this is the moment

where the Holy Spirit is going to show you that thing that

needs to lay down. Maybe it's your finances.

Maybe it's what you're spending your money into.

Mum shared a couple of weeks ago that we Mum and Dad had a

decision to make between Sky TV and sponsoring a child in Africa

and they decided that Sky TV could go.

Is that for you? Maybe that's what the Lord is

calling you to with your finances.

Maybe it's your time. See, sometimes we forget that

time and effort can be invested into the Kingdom as well.

Maybe you spent hours a day SAT watching the news, scrolling

social media, looking for that next story.

Maybe this is the Lord calling you to spend time in your secret

place and with Him, growing in knowledge of Him.

Maybe there's a specific person that the Lord is putting on your

heart right now. And the Lord is saying, I want

to use you to reach them. You know, God doesn't need us to

save, but what a blessing it is to be involved in his plans and

his ways. So I'm going to pray.

And as I pray, I want you to just sit open hearted.

In fact, everybody who's able to put your hands out, put your

hands out and open, because do you know this is a sign that

matches heart posture and shows a readiness to receive and

expect him. And I'm going to pray and just

sit and listen to the Lord and ask Lord, how do you want to use

me? What do you want me to do?

How can I execute biblical wisdom so that I start building

for heavenly treasure? Lord Jesus, I thank you for the

way you spoke today and spoken through this meeting.

Lord, I thank you for the worship and this word.

Lord, we call upon you. Father, will you convict us and

show us of how we can live better lives for you, how we can

go out impacting this world for you.

Jesus, may you reveal to us areas that we can give over,

things that we can let go of to serve You better.

Lord, it doesn't mean that those things are wrong, but how can we

better serve you? Lord, help us keep our eyes

fixed as we go on eternity and on you.

Lord, help us let the sin and the things of this world that so

easily entangles fall away so that we may run our race with

eyes fully fixed on heaven and on you.

Yeah, Jesus, come and show us in your mighty power and grace.

We thank you for your death and resurrection from that cross.

So we get to go out and serve for you.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen.