Proverbs 9 | Two Paths to Choose

Sunday Morning | May 18, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

Pastor John continues his series on the book of Proverbs with "Two Paths to Choose." We can choose the path of wisdom and spiritual growth, or the path of folly and become a scoffer, unteachable, isolated and alone.

You can join us on Sunday mornings at 11 AM for worship. We are located at 8911 3rd Street Road, Louisville KY 40272.

Transcript

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Well, thank you, Worship Team, for leading us this morning. We're going to continue in our study of the Book of Proverbs this morning and Proverbs chapter nine we'll be looking at and you should have gotten a handout when you came in. That's going to be important today. If you didn't get one, raise your hand and we'll have someone come around and give you one. We got a lot of people who snuck in the side door. You got to come in the main doors. I see you trying to sneak in. Now, can we get someone? There's someone up here with a few, maybe a couple guys slip out. Just keep your hands up. We're going to see who can hold their hand up the longest while we get these in. These will start being passed around. Okay, let me set this up, though, by telling you a little bit about chapter nine and why I'm doing this. I don't normally we don't normally have a handout. We don't normally approach it this way. This is a little different this Sunday. Part of the reason why is chapter nine has a very interesting structure that sets up this idea of comparison, contrast. Oftentimes in life, you don't really understand something until you have something to compare it to. I've talked before about how I'm not very athletic, but I did love playing pickup basketball with a group of guys when I lived in little Rock and served in ministry there, and we had a great time, a great group of guys, and I did pretty well with them. I felt like I could handle my own with that group of guys, until the day that this one guy showed up and he was a Division one football player, played defensive line at University of Arkansas SEC school. Not even a basketball player. He’s a football player. And we could do absolutely nothing to stop him. None of us could do anything to stop him. I remember one time he was coming down the lane and I thought, I'm at least going to foul him as hard as I can to try to stop him. And when my hand hit his hand because I didn't make it to the ball, it was like hitting a solid block of concrete. It didn't even matter. It was like your five year old trying to stop you from scoring, playing basketball. He just kept on going and I thought my first thought was, I hope this guy never comes back. He's ruining all the fun for me to continue to live in the delusion that I'm a decent basketball player. He didn't even play college basketball. This isn't even the bottom level of college basketball, and he was way above all of us. Sometimes we need that point of comparison, that point of contrast, to help you gauge reality, to help you see reality. Otherwise, it's too easy to kind of get lulled into thinking that something is different than it really is. This is what chapter nine is going to highlight for us today, and it does it in a pretty unique way. So I've not drawn out a lot of the structure of the first nine chapters in Proverbs, but there is a lot of structure in each of those, which surprised me because coming into Proverbs, I've always seen the Book of Proverbs as just a collection of random sayings, no real clear structure, a lot of really helpful wisdom. If you've read Proverbs over the course of your life, you've gained a lot of wisdom from Proverbs. But it's not necessarily been orderly, like one of the letters of Paul, where a letter and epistle has a clear structure to it, it builds to an argument. I've always seen Proverbs is just kind of this random collection of things, but the first nine chapters have a lot of structure. That's why we've gone through them one at a time. And chapter nine is really going to end that. So we've gone through chapters one, two, three. We've worked through a chapter at a time, but moving forward for the next ten weeks, we're just going to look at ten topics across the next 20 chapters of Proverbs. Chapter ten through 30 are really more of that random collection of Proverbs. So Colby and I sat down together. Colby is our student pastor. He helps do some of the preaching. We sit down together and said, what are ten topics we see here that stand out more than the others? Let's just pick across all the different chapters of Proverbs, and we're going to address things like money, like character, like the heart, words, parenting, marriage, work. You see all these different topics show up over and over and over again, peppered throughout. So we'll go through them topically. But chapter nine helps us bridge to that approach, because chapter nine shows the central contrast of chapter nine, but also the entire book of Proverbs. And it does it in a really interesting way. This is why I gave you a handout, because it doesn't it's not going to show up in your Bible in the same way, because here's how chapter nine is structured. There are 18 verses in chapter nine, and there are three sets of six verses first six, second six, last six, and the first six, and the last six are mirror images of one another, a direct contrast and comparison. Thus the idea today of contrast and comparison. And the author does this for a really important reason to help us see what is the core issue at play in chapter nine. And so you have that handout. I've put it in front of you and you can turn in your own Bibles. If you'd rather also look at the two. If you have a church Bible, the page number should be on the screen in Proverbs chapter nine. You can turn there or you can just work from the handout. But the way we're going to do this is we're going to compare and contrast the first six verses with the last six verses. And in that we'll see a central idea. Here's the other interesting thing about the structure. Each of those six verse groups are structured within themselves the same way. Three verses, one verse, two verse. I've tried to highlight that here in the handout as well. That is meant to highlight the main point of each section. Oftentimes in Hebrew poetry, the thing that is emphasized is what's in the middle, not at the beginning. Usually when we emphasize stuff, we either do it at the beginning or we build to it, do it at the end, oftentimes in Hebrew poetry, it was in the center. And the structure even hints to that. So we're going to see in the comparison what is being compared. What is it the center of what's being compared. But then in the central portion we'll see. What is the central idea of chapter nine and all of Proverbs. All right. That's a lot to dump on you. So let's dive in. Let's look at chapter nine. And we're just going to read the first four verses and the next to last four verses. You have that on your handout. We're just going to read those and compare those and talk about what is going on, what is the central comparison. So look at Proverbs nine verse one. Wisdom has built her house. She has honed her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts. She has mixed her wine. She's also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in town. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. So that's the way of wisdom. The woman of wisdom. Now let's look at the way of folly, verses 13 through 16, in comparison. The woman folly in comparison is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house. She takes a seat on the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way. She also cries, whoever is simple, let him turn in here. So you can see how these are mirror images of the same issue. Both Lady Wisdom and the Woman of Folly are calling out to the simple, come in here. This is where you need to be. Both are, if you notice, in the green, in the high places of the town, both are in the same place. They're competing for the attention of the same lives. But notice the difference in who they are. It's very critical to see the difference in who each of them are. Look at Lady Wisdom. She builds her house, she has created it. And the imagery here, large pillars, shows this is a nice house. This is a place you want to be. It's a place of wealth. She, it mentions, has seven pillars. That number seven often is representative in Scripture, not always, but often of this idea of completion of perfection, of creation. If you think back to the seven days of creation, even the idea of rest- he created, then he rested. The implication here is her house is a place where you can find rest. Her house is a place where things are created and made and given. Her house is a place where there is a hint of towards the perfect, the complete. This is the kind of house she builds and she built it. But also it speaks to this incredible meal she lays out for the simple, for the naive. Come and partake. She slaughtered her beasts, meaning there's meat at this meal. And at that time, meat would not have been at every meal like we tend to have it. It's everywhere you want. But at that time you had to pick and choose. When we visited Rwanda, when we were there, I learned many people there often have meat a couple of times a year. Most people didn't often eat meat with their meals. It was a privilege. It was a luxury. It's a sign that this is a special event. This is a banquet. She has mixed her wine it says. And wine. Here's the interesting part of this. Wine is often a picture of God's blessing. Not not always in Scripture, but it's often seen. And part of the reason why is you can't have wine and really agriculture in that regard. If you're constantly at war per se, if your land is constantly being attacked, you can't cultivate, you can't develop, you can't set things aside. Give them the time to ferment. In the case of wine, it's a sign that the land is at rest, that God's hand is upon protecting, caring for. And it says that she mixed it. She made it herself. She made it for this moment. Also, lastly, she set her table. She's laying a banquet like Queen Esther and calling out her maidens to say, go find people to come. Go out, bring them here. We need to go get the simple. They need to be here. This is who she is. This is what she's doing. She's creating, she's building, she's inviting. She's going after the simple for their good. She has something good to offer. She cares deeply about them. Now look at the comparison. Because the contrast. When we put these two side by side, you see the difference between her and the woman of folly. What does she have to offer? She is loud, seductive, and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house. She didn't build the house, and she sits there passively waiting for the naive who comes by calling out to them. And look at verse 15 in particular. Who is she calling out to those who are going straight on their way? You see this idea all the time in Proverbs. The difference between going on the straight path and the crooked path. The simple are trying to go about life the right way, and she's trying to call them off of that. They're still simple and naive and easily led away, but they're at least on the straight path, and her desire is to pull them off that not so that she can give them this wonderful meal and a house full of creation, rest, investment, care, giving. Here's all she has to offer. The subtext here is all she has to offer is just a cheap, quick thrill. All she has to offer is herself. And it's an empty, short lived, temporary thrill from someone who has nothing to give. She's just there to take. This is important to highlight. This is the reason I put these passages side by side. Because, as I said, if you are living in isolation, it's easy to feel like you're doing pretty good. But when you compare it to reality, you see, you see the contrast, it stands out. And the father has been warning the son all throughout the first nine chapters. My son, my son, my son. We saw it over and over again 15 plus times. My son, my son. Many of those were watch out for the seductive woman. Watch out for the adulterous. But if you're the simple one walking down the street and she's calling out to you and you don't have a point of comparison, and then you're in the midst of the temptation, it's easy to lose perspective. It's easy to think, this isn't that big a deal. I don't there's not really that much at stake what's what's really going on here. But when you set these passages side by side and you see the mirror image and the contrast, it stands out. The vast difference between the two. So we see the difference in their character, in who they are. One's a giver, one's a taker. Notice what they offer here. So verse four, verse 16 are the same. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here to him who lacks sense. Here's what she says. Lady wisdom says, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Come and eat of the things that I have created, made for you, invested in taking time to build and care for, for your good at no cost. Come. But contrast that with Lady Folly. Here's what she offers. Stolen water is sweet bread eaten in secret is pleasant. She offers not even things that she took the time to make and create. I've stolen it from someone else, by the way, who steals water? What? What is the it that shows you how easily enticed the simple are? Hey, come get some stolen water. That's what drew you in? Well, part of the imagery here is also the reality. This image we've seen in Proverbs chapter five, what did the father say to the son? He said, drink from your own cistern, drink from your own well. Don't go after the forbidden springs, the stolen water. It's an imagery of adultery. She is not yours, but she's offering herself. She's someone else's. But I'm offering myself to you. She's stolen water. What she offers is. And here's the thing that works. To get the simple, the naive. Here's what she offers. She offers the thrill of the forbidden. I've shared this story multiple times. It'll come up over and over again because it's. Significant in the history of the church. Augustine. He wrote tons of books 300 400 A.D., one of the most influential fathers of the early church. In particular, he wrote a book called confessions. It's really considered one of the first early Christian biographies. And he talked about in there about how he loved this one moment in particular, when he was completely apart from Christ. He remembers when he and some of his friends went stole pears from the trees of a neighbor. And it you know, it sounds so simple and so silly to even for him to still be regretting that, he said. But here's what most troubled me when I look back at that. I wasn't hungry. I didn't want the pears. The pears weren't even ripe. What I loved and what my friends loved, what we long for was the forbidden, the thrill of doing the thing I shouldn't do, the thrill of doing the thing that was wrong and loving it. He said I loved that taste in my mouth. I delighted in the joy of doing the thing that was forbidden. And by the way, there is a great thrill in doing the forbidden thing. Many of us know that. No, you told me. I can't do that. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take great delight in denying you or getting something through trickery. There is thrill in that. No doubt she does offer something that people do want, but it's temporary. It's short lived. It doesn't last. And at the end of the day, here's where it leads. Here's where it heads. He shows it right here in direct contrast. Look at verse six with the lady of wisdom. Here's what she says. I've offered you bread and wine. Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight. Contrast that with what Woman Folly offers. He does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. Here's where both of these paths lead. They're in direct contrast. Lady wisdom leads to insight and life. You follow her, you get life and insight. More wisdom. Follow Lady Folly and you end up just like her. She doesn't even know. She thinks she's seductive. She thinks she's offering something. And it said in verse 13, she knows nothing. She don't even realize that what she offers is empty. And that's where you'll end up. If you continue down that path, you'll end up not even knowing that you're heading toward death. The point of this, and the point of putting these side by side, is to see the contrast. It stands out really strong. There are two paths to follow. Which way are you going to choose? Part of the reason why I put this in this format for you is for these middle verses to really stand out, and you can see verse four and verse 16 there in purple. They're almost exactly the same and they're both at the center. Both are showing you this is the emphasis of the opening six verses and the closing six verses. Both of them are saying, you've got a choice. Which way are you going to follow? Are you going to follow the way of wisdom? Turn in. Are you going to turn in like the simple to the way of wisdom? Are you going to follow the way of folly? There's two paths. We see this all through the book of Proverbs. This is the central tension of the Book of Proverbs. And it's really important to wrestle with that. There's not a middle way presented. You can't walk on the fence between the two. Are you going to go towards wisdom? Are you going to go towards folly? Which is it going to be? There's no middle way. Jesus says this in revelation. It's hot or cold, mid lukewarm. I'll spit you out of my mouth. Which way are you going? One friend of mine used to say it this way. He said. The middle of the road is a great place to get run over. Which way are you going to go? Are you going to choose wisdom? Are you going to choose folly? The two paths are set in contrast to say, you've got to choose. And if you're not choosing wisdom, you are choosing folly. If you're not moving towards wisdom, you're moving towards folly. You're not just staying the same. You're always changing. If you're not growing, you're regressing. Don't be naive to that reality. Don't live as the simple. The reality is we all have to grow up whether we want to or not. So the choice is there. Which way will you grow up as the person who is wise, or as the person who chooses foolishness? Now that's the central contrast to the Book of Proverbs. And as we go through these ten topics, you'll see it over and over again. Are you going to choose wisdom? Are you going to choose folly? There's a central solution, though those are on the outside. The point is, towards the middle of chapter nine, there's a reason why those six verses are in the center to give us the central solution. The central contrast is the two paths. What's at the core of the solution to that? Where should we end up to find true wisdom? To move towards true wisdom? Flip the page over and you'll see the next six verses. Help us see. And they're structured the same way. 3,1,2. Exact same structure for the six verses in between the other six at the center. Keep in mind Hebrew poetry often points to what's in the middle is the main emphasis. Look at verse seven through 12. We'll just read seven through eight. In fact, I'm going to start by verse seven, eight and nine. Start with its own contrast between the scoffer and the wise. Look at verse seven and eight. First, we'll just talk about the scoffer. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Now I've put in blue here the word scoffer and then in purple are some shade of blue, the word wise, and you can see the scoffer is equated with the wicked, and the wise is equated with the righteous. Three times scoffer, three times wise. Let's just talk about the scoffer here, and he uses the word scoffer because here's what's happened. If you continue down the path of folly where you end up, you don't stay simple. The simple man who pursues foolishness, you don't stay naive, you end up the scoffer and the scoffer is the person, the mocker, the scoffer is the person who cannot receive instruction, who cannot receive a rebuke, who cannot be corrected. This is the person that if you attempt to give them any correction, they don't just write you off. Hey, whatever. No no no no. Here's what they do. Look at the words here at the end of each verse. You will get abuse. You will get injury, you will get hate. The scoffer, in order to survive, has to hate you. They have to make you the enemy if you attempt to correct them. And I love the wording here. When you correct a scoffer. You get abuse and all they can see after that, if you try to correct the scoffer, all they see is reproof. He who reproves a wicked man, do not reprove a scoffer. If you attempt to correct the person who is unteachable, who can't imagine that they could ever be wrong, all they hear is you hate me. It's really quiet in here right now. This isn't fun to talk about. I think we all have been like, oh, that's. Yeah, I haven't been very approachable at times in life. Or maybe you're thinking of someone in particular. No elbows. Okay. No pointing out to others. I think he's talking about you right now. I'm not sure. Hundred percent. But you should listen to this. No, the Scoffer says I will not be corrected. I will not change. I will not grow. I've known a person like this, and at first I really assumed this person was evil and really just wanted to make life difficult for everyone around them. But you know, I learned about their childhood and the reality is, this person learned a pattern of survival from an early age to try to just make it through life. And I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that's okay. But, John, what would what would you have done? Put yourself in that childhood, grow up that way. How would you be? Would you be any better? Definitely not. Okay. That led to some compassion for this person. Yet I still need to put distance between myself and this person. I couldn't let them continue to abuse. That's not good for them or for me. And pray and care. But the reality is they're not listening. Contrast that. That's the road you're headed down. If you continue down the road of folly, if you continue down the road of just choosing the cheap, quick thrill, the easy path. Contrast that with the wise right in direct contrast here. That's what chapter nine is all about. Look at how it describes the rise. Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man or woman, by the way, both a person. He will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. So the naive who turns off the road to the wise woman not only gets wisdom, but gets teach ability, gets the ability to grow, gets the ability to continue to receive correction and be open to it. When Isaac and I first began talking about him becoming the worship pastor, I said, Isaac, I'm excited about this possibility. But I got to bring up a few things that I need to see you work on. I just haven't seen these, or I've seen maybe that I want them to be stronger, and I was hesitant to bring that up. Who wants to point out things to someone that you feel like need to be better? You know what Isaac said to me? He said, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for caring enough to bring this up to invest in me. I think what he said, he didn't say I love him. He didn't say I love you. We didn't get all bro love in the moment. But I heard from him. Thank you. Gratitude. I heard this same idea. I'm grateful that you would do this. Thank you for investing in me. And you know where this leads. He will be wiser still. If you're teachable, you'll continue to grow. And I love the change in the verbs here. If you reprove or it's on the lines of rebuke, you reprove the wise man, you come to him in a situation, I think you're wrong and you need correction. He doesn't go deeper into the reprove. That's all I see is you hate me. Instead, he gets instruction, which we like. We want that he gets teaching. The verbs change. It's not just correct. Reprove, reprove. It's reprove. It's instruction. It's teaching the wise person once more. The wise person wants to continue to grow. And that's a great place to be. I think that's where we all want to be. We don't always get there, but it's the contrast that's set up here, and it is the path you head down. If you follow the path of wisdom, you're headed towards becoming more teachable, more approachable, more correctable. And if you head down the path of folly, you're headed down the path of becoming hardened to truth, closed off to change, set in your ways. That's the direction. And it's not either. It's not. There's no middle path. It's you're heading one way or the other. Now look at what he says here at the end, verse 11 and 12. Here's where that path heads up for by me. Or here's where that path is headed. For by me your days will be multiplied. Years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you scoff you alone will bear it. Where this ends up is two places. If you are headed down the path of wisdom, this speaks to character. As you grow in wisdom, you grow in character, and character is at the very core of who you are. It is yourself. In fact, one commentator said it this way Derek Kidner, he said, your character is the one thing you cannot borrow, lend or escape from, for it is you. I can't come up and ask to borrow a little bit of your character. No, that's who you are. And for me to grow in character, it's going to take time, effort, hard work over the years to change character. Colby and I were talking about this as we were wrestling with this idea and how to communicate it. In some ways it is like athletics, you know, the athlete. Colby played college baseball. He played at Asbury. And when you get up to the plate to swing at the ball, you need to rely on instinct at that moment. You have hit a ball thousands and thousands of times leading up to that moment, so that when you're at the plate, you don't you don't have to think about it. If you're thinking in that moment, you're in trouble. It becomes instinct. And character is like that. Character is training that leads to truth that becomes instinct. You are training truth into instinct in your life with character over and over again, to where your immediate reaction is the reaction of wisdom. And that takes time and you can't borrow it from someone else. I could borrow your glove, I could borrow your bat, and the results would not be good because I have not trained for that. I have no instinct in baseball at all. It would be awful. Build up character over time. This is the end result. Character. Now the other path. The path of the fool. The path of the scholar. No scoffer. No. Note where it landed up ended up. If you scoff, you alone will bear it. Here is where the scoffer ends up- alone, in isolation, having driven everyone away. I remember a guy. This was a guy I served in ministry with. And anytime or a few times I tried to just mention a few things that he was off on and it was scoffing. No John, you see this wrong, riding away, spinning in a different direction. And where it ended up was I never came to him again. If he ain't listening, he ain't listening. He doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want any part of it. Why even try? Why bother? You end up as a scoffer in isolation and alone. And maybe. Look, there's plenty of people who are the scoffer who are quite public, who are quite famous, let me tell you, they are going to end up alone when all the fame and money runs out. No one wants to be around him. This is the path of the scoffer. Now here's what we want to point out about this group of verses. In this contrast between scoff and wisdom, here's the central point of Proverbs. Chapter nine means at the center of the center where you go to find wisdom. Look at verse ten. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. If you want to grow in wisdom, move towards the fear of the Lord. This is the central verse of chapter nine. It is the central solution of chapter chapter nine. It was the first verse in chapter seven or seventh verse, chapter one, verse seven. It was almost the same verse. Fear the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They act like bookends. On chapter one through nine, showing that this whole thing. If you want to know how to follow the path of wisdom, you've got to fear the Lord. It's got to start with the fear of the Lord. So I wanted to highlight all that structure that was going on here for you to see what's happening in the book and in this chapter, all of this leads I've got four points of application. How do we apply all this to our lives? Because that was a lot. I know, getting deep in the structure, helping highlight it, but it was important, I think, for this chapter in particular for points of application. First ask yourself how do I respond to correction? How do I respond to correction to rebuke? If someone approaches me, what do I do? Do I want to hear it or not? And by the way, if you're not sure how you respond. Ask someone close to you. Ask your spouse if you're married. Ask if you have children. Ask your child. If you are a child, ask your parent. How did I respond to correction? That is a hard thing to do. Most of us don't really want to know. Oh, and by the way, parent child, spouse. You play a role in this too. Because if you're sitting there thinking, well, doesn’t matter, they never listen. Well, maybe your approach could be a little better. Maybe there are some skills we need to develop on timing, on tact, on wording, on kindness. You know, we spent a lot of time on that in First Peter. Even little things like don't use the words always and never. Because if you say that I think of the one time it was true, instead of really listening to what you're saying. There's all kinds of ways that we can grow in our communication so that we come in love to build one another up, not not tear down, not just to win the argument. But the first question is, I can't control what other people say to me. What I can grow in is, am I approachable? Number two, how do I or number two has my heart become hard to truth? Have I gone down the path of scoffing? And like the Pharisees who couldn't even see that Jesus was the way, the heart was hard to truth. Just ask and pray. God, am I soft? Am I open the truth? Am I moldable? Number three ask yourself, do I fear the Lord? This is the central issue of the chapter. Do I fear the Lord? And here's an easy way to ask that. Can I say in all honesty, by the way, even if it's hard to say, can I say in all honesty, God, I want your way above my own. I want to do what you want me to do more than what I want to do. And even I might even say that, though, as I'm saying it with a little bit of trepidation and fear and trembling, knowing that I don't know if I'm all in the way I'd like to be. But I want to say that in faith. If I can say that, that shows that I want to submit to who he is, follow him, order my life under him, have him as the ultimate authority in my life. I think our temptation is instead to try to often make God in our own image. This is the God I want. This is how I think God should be, because that's what my God would do. Meaning that's what I would do, which is making yourself God and trying to make God in the image of yourself. But the question here is, Will I order myself under the one who made me and made the universe and is in control and in charge of all things? Should he know infinitely more about what should be done than I do? That's the fear of the Lord. Do I fear the Lord? And then lastly, here's application point number four. Am I growing? And here's what I want to ask you to do this week. I want you to pray over that every day this week, every day this week. Just start your morning quiet time and ask God, am I growing? Or have I become stagnant? Have I become unopen to growth? This is so important to our church. I can't stress enough how important this is. This is this church is only going to grow as much as each of us grow. I can't do anything to make anyone here grow. I can't control my spouse or my children or my parents. Those are the closest people to me. I can't even control them, nor should I try to. By the way. And I can, by the way, the one person I have a chance of influencing maybe is myself. I can't even control me sometimes, but that's the person that I hope I can encourage to grow. And if I'm growing and if you're growing up, just try to picture a church where everyone here is as growing. And I'm not saying you're not growing, by the way, I'm not sitting up here thinking, all y'all need to grow. None of you are growing. No, look. But imagine that you're I think we all would say there's room for growth in each of our lives. I would say that. And if all of us were growing at our maximum potential and ability, imagine what would happen. Imagine what God would do if every one of us were doing that. Am I growing? Just simply pray that God help me to grow. Help me to hunger for growth. This morning I'm going to give you a chance to pray over that. We're going to take communion together. And if you're one of those who are helping to distribute communion, go ahead and slip out now and get those ready.