Heading Wisdoms Warning : The Dangers of Rejecting Rebuke : God’s Wisdom for Life from Proverbs

Our message this morning is entitled Heeding Wisdom’s Warning, the dangers of rejecting rebuke. The dangers of rejecting rebuke. Let’s all stand together. We’re going to read from Proverbs chapter 9, Proverbs chapter 9 verse 8 through 9. Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you. Rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still. Teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for the opportunity to learn from your word today. Lord, I pray that this message, which in some ways is a difficult message to hear, Lord, that we would be able to receive it with grace. Lord, Proverbs teaches us that we should be quick to receive correction, but too often we are not interested in being corrected. So help us, Lord. Give us a teachable spirit. Give us a coachable heart. Lord, I pray for dads, for moms, I pray for children and teenagers, Lord, for each and every person at every decade of life, Lord, that you would give us the ability to receive correction from the Holy Spirit and from those we trust and from your word. In Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. And again, the message this morning is entitled Heeding Wisdom’s Warning, the dangers of rejecting rebuke. Jesus was a learner. You know, in my Bible, I marked Luke 2, 52. I want to just read it for you this morning. Luke’s gospel chapter two, verse 52. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. There’s so many stories we could look to to point out that Jesus was a learner. He grew. He was an example to us of what we should be, that we should have a heart of being a disciple. You know, Jesus called 12. He had his inner circle, then he had 12 that he called, then he appointed 70 and they were called disciples. What’s a disciple? The disciple is a student or a learner. That was their posture. And so they follow Jesus because they knew they they needed to learn from Jesus. They need to grow. They needed to change. So not only was Jesus a learner, but those who followed him were learners. And so what about you and I today? Am I teachable? I mean, that that’s the message right there. I could I could stop and we could pray and we could go home and think about it. That’s the message. Are you teachable or do you have it all figured out? Are you so filled with your own thoughts and your own way of thinking about it that you’re not really able to pause and to listen and to receive from a parent, from a pastor, from a teacher, from a coach? Am I teachable? You know, in my life, my wife has permission to correct me now, hopefully not publicly, hopefully not in a way to embarrass me. But there are people in my life who have permission to hold me accountable. Our deacons, they have my permission. It’s the way we’re set up as a church, even. But I mean, just from my heart and I’m looking at one of the deacons, I’m trying to find the others from my heart. You have my permission to say, oh, pastor, I’m not sure about that. Who in your life has permission to rebuke you? To correct you? And I know a lot of people that I hang out with that the reality is they may not be aware of it, but everybody else knows nobody really has permission to rebuke them. That’s just how they roll. There may be some husbands here this morning that that’s how you’ve rolled for decades. The only person in the home who asks forgiveness or apologizes is somebody else, not you. Come on, church. Am I teachable? You know, growing up, coaching was a big part of my life because I was usually playing a sport or so I always had a coach and I’ve had some great coaches and I’ve had some coaches that really have disappointed me. Coaches aren’t perfect, but we need coaches, don’t we? If we want to learn how to shoot that three point shot, we need somebody to be honest with us. You know, hey, you need to square up. I remember my coach used to tell me all the time, Ragsdale, square up. You know, you don’t shoot very well like this when you’re flying that way. He would say square up to the basket. And then when I began to listen after I got so tired of the ball not going in and I finally after a few seasons began to listen later, I could go to my coach, say, you know, coach, that makes a lot of sense. I started squaring up and it’s funny how the ball doesn’t go in right away, but it seems to just fall in there. Because I listened to what the coach was saying. When I was a younger person, I had the opportunity to raise a horse. His official name was Vanity’s Black Shadow. He lived about 31 years. He lived quite a long time. But we had him from the time he was seven weeks old and I didn’t really know much other than my dad had taught me a lot about horses, but I had never broke a horse or anything like that. And I was able to work with that horse all the way to, you know, where you can break them and get on their back and ride around. And it just was such an amazing learning experience for me how to work with an animal like a horse that’s so powerful and could actually hurt you if they want to because they’re just so powerful or if they do something crazy. And when you work with an animal with that kind of strength, you realize that even as a coach or a trainer, something has to happen in the mind of that horse where they finally join up with you. If you’ve ever, there’s actually a really good movie about that called Horse Whisperer. And it just kind of talks about that process of you’re not really breaking the horse, you’re trying to get the horse to want to work with you. Do you have people in your life that you’re willing, you’re open to work with so that you can grow, so that you can change, so that you can receive correction? Of course, it has to start with God’s Word. It’s a lot harder, I think, at times in life. Let me back up to say I want to be teachable as it relates to God’s Word. I want to be quick to hear and to respond to whatever the Holy Spirit or whatever God’s Word is saying. But I also need to have people in my life that have permission to correct me, to rebuke me in love and say, you know, pastor or brother, I want to see you better. And yes, you really did say that wrong. Sometimes that’s harder, right, to figure out, like was that a rebuke or are they just offended because they’re offended? But I encourage you at least to be open to having people in your life who can hold you accountable and give you biblical advice and bring correction into your life. Proverbs chapter 3, 11 and 12 says it like this, my son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves. As a father, the son he delights in. Now, when I first read that, I thought of Hebrews 7 and thought that’s got to be New Testament. But no, that’s that’s Proverbs chapter 3. And the author of Hebrews picks up on that proverb and talks about how God, if he loves you and you’re his child, we should expect at times in life that God is going to coach us. He’s going to train us. He’s going to discipline us. He’s going to direct us. And so, again, Lord, help us to be teachable. There’s many dangers to rejecting correction. And these all come from the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs tells the one that just always rejects correction that eventually you’ll be known as a fool. I told you this was going to be a hard message. You see, what happens in life is that when you will never receive someone’s correction, then eventually you’re just left to your own ways. You’re just left to your own thoughts. You’re just left to be that person in the room that everyone else knows there’s a really big problem except you. And now everyone’s going, hey, look at that fool over there. That’s Proverbs chapter 12, verse 1. Another danger of rejecting rebuke is Proverbs says that poverty and shame will come to the simple, to the mocker, to the foolish who reject the fear of the Lord and reject the wisdom of God. Another danger is that we miss out on God’s paths of life is what Proverbs says. Proverbs 15, 10, that actually death ends up eventually. It comes suddenly, but it ends up coming upon the fool and the simple and the one who rejects wisdom. And that’s also what Proverbs 29, verse 1 says about the one who rejects rebuke is that there is sudden destruction. It’s kind of a picture like this in Proverbs that you’re going along through life and someone tries to give you a little correction, maybe redirect you, say, hey, you know, you could have said that a little different or, hey, that was really just flat out wrong. If you want to make the three point shot, you’re going to have to actually face the basket. You know, and someone gives you a little direction. And then at that point you have a choice. I can listen and receive and pray about it and maybe go to God’s word, make sure it matches up with God’s word, or I can just ignore that correction. And then I just keep going along my path. But eventually what happens if you keep rejecting rebuke, you keep rejecting correction, whether it’s about finance or how you’re operating in your marriage or the way you’re parenting, you just keep doing your thing your way, not understanding why is life so frustrating? Why are things not working out? Eventually what happens is you turn into a fool. And what we’re going to hear, and this is, it’s going to be a very harsh part of Proverbs. It’s the law of the sowing and reaping is eventually Proverbs says, God kind of just, your wisdom just kind of lets you go your way and you end up reaping the results of your own path, your own decisions. What you, what you said was wisdom. And it’s, it happens especially to those who reject the fear of the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is when you hold God in high regard and you say, God, I’m not going to trust my own thoughts. I’m not going to trust my own ways, but I’m going to make sure I put God at the center of everything in my life. That’s when your personal relationships are going to thrive. That’s when your marriage is going to thrive. That’s when your finances are going to do well. That’s when you’re going to see the favor of God in your life is when you say, God, I fear you and I want you at the very center of everything in my life. Then we don’t have to live in fear. Then we don’t have to live in fear of sudden danger or, or sudden destruction because we’re walking in the fear of the Lord. So let’s get into this. Proverbs chapter one, verse 20 through 23, heating wisdom’s warning. The first truth we see that here comes from verses 20 and 21 wisdom. And I’m so thankful is available to you. Wisdom is available to all of us. Look at this wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets. She raises her voice at the head of the noisy streets. She cries out at the entrance of the city gate. She speaks, see wisdom is available to all of us. And the way verse 20 and verse 21 reads is it helps us understand that wisdom is available in private life. Wisdom is available in public life. Wisdom is available to us in even the busyness and the business transactions of our life. And then the last one, when it talks about city gates, verse 21, in those days, the city gates, that was the place where the politicians and the city mayor and the city council would meet. They would meet at the city gates. So that last one is saying, even in politics, even in governing a city, the wisdom of God has been made available to all. And so there’s really no area of our life that we have to go it alone. I praise God for that. If we will get into the word of God, if we will get into God’s promises and his purposes, and we will begin to fill up our lives with his word, you can walk in wisdom. I didn’t say it would be easy. I didn’t say that that means you’ll never have a problem. But I’m saying to you, if you will chase after, remember that illustration I shared a couple weeks ago about the, I think it was Socrates with his pupil or disciple, and he kept pushing him under the water. And finally he said, I don’t want wisdom. I want air. I just want to breathe. And the point was, and the point is, if we will pursue wisdom with such a passion that we want God’s wisdom in our life, we want God’s ways in our life. We want God’s purposes and promises and favor in our life more than we want our next breath. Friend, you’ll have it. You will have the wisdom of God in your life. The second truth we see in these verses is in verse 22, the simple reject wisdom’s rebuke. Verse 22, how long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? And so Proverbs lays out for us that we don’t always make the right choices. And eventually our choices come to label us. Now I don’t like labels, but the, this is what Proverbs is teaching us. Proverbs is teaching us. And let me back up to say, the reason I don’t like labels is once I was a fool, but now I’m walking in the wisdom of God. Once I was maybe a mocker, but now I’m mocking no more. I’m in love with Jesus. So I don’t believe in labels because I know the power of Jesus to change your life. And that’s the gospel. That’s the new covenant. That’s the blood of Jesus that has forgiven all my sins and, and, and everything in my past is in my past and now I can live for the Lord. But what Proverbs is doing is laying a foundation for us and helping us understand that if we persist in our simple way of thinking, if we, if we persist in being a mocker or a scoffer, if we persist in being a fool, we are going to miss out on the wisdom of God. We’re going to miss out on God’s purposes and plans for your life. Again, there’s three different words here. The first is simple. How long will you who are simple, love your simple way? Simple really could be translated gullible. Like you’re just, you believe anything you, you live life based on your impulses. Like, like if you feel like getting an ice cream, you do that. That’s a bad example. I think it’s because I’m in a, I, I’m in a contest with Pastor Ellis and I have wanted to walk over to Dairy Queen and have an ice cream for about six weeks now. But Pastor Ellis, I am down a solid 10 pounds. Woo. It’s working baby. I don’t, I don’t really care if I win. I’m just glad to be on this journey with Pastor Ellis. But this word simple is this per is it’s a person that’s gullible. They’re easily swayed. They go with the crowd. They, they go with whatever their emotion is feeling in the moment. They are easily influenced. They are simple. A mocker is someone who doesn’t just live in evil, but actually makes fun of the good and tries to encourage other people to come along with them. And then it’s interesting in the book of Proverbs, a fool is more than really how we use that word in English. When we say in English that someone’s foolish, I don’t know. We’re thinking they just, you know, make bad decisions. But in the book of Proverbs, a fool is someone who has hardened their heart against God and they have no fear of the Lord before their eyes. And they are in complete opposition to the things of God. Friend, don’t be a fool. Proverbs says it’s the fool who says in their heart, there is no God. And so we live in a foolish nation. When a nation says, when a group of people says, God doesn’t matter, we don’t want God in our public schools. We don’t want God in our business life. We don’t want God in our marriage. Don’t tell me how to do my private life and my relationships. I’m going to do it however I want. And then I’m still going to come to the altar and pray that God would bless me. I told you that we need grace to receive this today. See, there’s dangers in rejecting a rebuke. There’s dangers in saying, as a fool would say, well, there is no God and I can just live however I want and I don’t have to follow God’s word, but I can still expect the favor of God in my life. Friend, don’t do that. I’ve really been enjoying our Bible study at 9.30 on prayer. Pastor Jim Cimbala from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, he’s been helping us understand the importance of prayer. But one of the things he’s also just, it’s touched my heart. He’s reminded us again and again as you, you know, prayer is not an opportunity to make a deal with God. Like you can’t just say, well, I’m going to live however I want and then I’m going to go to prayer and I’m going to ask God to help me when I’m facing a problem. God doesn’t work that way. You see, a big part of prayer life, a big part of praying is God begins to get a hold of your heart. God begins to get a hold of your life and God begins to transform and change who you are as a person. So you want to line your life up with his word and his nature and his ways. And then you can expect the favor of God to be poured out in your life. The simple reject wisdom’s rebuke, Lord, help us not to be in that classification. A third truth we see coming out of verse 23, and this is really where I got my title. This is the heartbeat of the message this morning. Repentance reaps reward. I’m so thankful for that. Verse 23, repent at my rebuke. And this is the rebuke of wisdom. In other words, in this chapter, and we’ll see it again and again in the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as lady wisdom. So the way Proverbs works is there’s, the way it’s written is there’s lady wisdom and there’s lady folly. And so wisdom is personified as like a mom or a grandmother calling you to come back to the fear of the Lord, calling you to come back to the wise ways of God. And here wisdom is saying, repent at my rebuke. Then I will pour out my thoughts to you. I will make known to you my teaching. When I think about the ministry of Jesus, Matthew chapter four, verse 17, the very first public proclamation of Jesus after his water baptism and his temptation in the desert was to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. And I love when the Holy Spirit comes near in my thoughts or in my heart and he convicts me of something. He lays my heart bare. Maybe the Holy Spirit’s using the word of God in my life and just laying my heart, my thoughts and my mind bear and saying, Tom, you need to deal with that issue in your life. You need to come closer to me. You need to let go of that. You see, that’s the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need more conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need more attentiveness to Lord as I pray and seek your face. What are you saying to me? What needs to change in my heart? What needs to change in my attitudes? Those are precious times in the presence of the Lord. How has our culture gone adrift so far away from the things of God is because we stopped listening to the rebuke of the Holy Spirit. And this morning I’m talking to the people of God. I’m talking to the children of God. I’m talking to the church. Christian, you need to be quick to hear the rebuke of the Holy Spirit in your heart and in your mind and then respond and obey and rejoice that the Holy Spirit is talking to you because there’s a day that could come when the Holy Spirit will no longer prick your heart because you just kept going on your way. Nope, I don’t need that. No, I’m good. I’m so thankful for the possibility of repentance. It’s the heartbeat of the Christian faith that when the Holy Spirit touches your heart, you can run to God. Your sins can be forgiven. The past can be forgotten. Whatever is going on in your life that God says, I don’t approve of that. I want that out of your life. You can let that go and walk with the Lord and have a clear conscience. No shame, no guilt. And you can expect the favor of God in your life. Wisdom says, repent at my rebuke. Then I will pour out my thoughts to you. I will make known to you my teachings. And here again is a hard part of the message this morning. A fourth truth from Proverbs verses 24 and 25 is when we reject wisdom, we reap destruction. It’s not as if we just go along and everything is okay just because we’re not walking in God’s ways. When we reject the wisdom of God, when we reject the wooing or the drawing of the Holy Spirit to set aside our evil, to set aside our sin and to walk with the Lord more closely. It’s not as if everything just goes along okay. No, what Proverbs tells us is there is a law of sowing and reaping. And we begin to reap what we’ve sowed. We begin to experience the devastation and the discouragement and the destruction that comes to a person who has remained in their simpleness, remained in their mockery, remained in their foolishness, saying, I don’t need God. I want to live life my own way. Verse 24 and 25, but since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke. And I want to pick up now in verse 25, and I want to, if you have your Bible, I think it’s worth reading all of these verses. Verse 25, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke. Verse 26, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes. Now again, this is wisdom laughing because you wouldn’t listen to wisdom. I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you. I will mock when calamity overtakes you. When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you, then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will look for me, but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. It’s a harsh word, but it’s important that we read these portions of scripture to remind ourselves that yes, God is a God of love. Yes, God is a God of acceptance. God loves you. You have been created in the image of God. You are special to God. Jesus came because he loved you. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Our God is a God of love, but you can’t make your own deal with God. And that’s what this generation is trying to do. You’d have to rewrite the whole Bible. If what our culture says is true about Christianity, you hear it on social media, love and acceptance, love and acceptance, everything’s okay. Live however you want. God will still bless you. God’s going to still help you. We’d have to rewrite the whole Bible, friend. See what the Bible is teaching us today. What Proverbs is saying to us is there is real danger when we reject correction. There is real danger for the child when a parent corrects a child and says, don’t run out in the street. And then that parent corrects that child and says, I will not allow you to run outside that street. And they grew up and they never get it. What’s going to happen if they just keep doing whatever they want to do? They’re going to be in real danger. That’s what Proverbs is saying to us morally and spiritually. When we reject the rebuke of the Lord, there is real danger in store for the one who remains simple and remains a mocker and remains a fool. But I love this last verse in verse 33. And this is our last truth from this passage, receive wisdom and live verse 33. But whoever listens to me, to wisdom, whoever listens to wisdom will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm. Oh, praise God. You see, that’s the gospel right there. God always holds out grace. God always holds out mercy. God always just like wisdom here is calling in the street and in the marketplace and the city gates and at home. Wisdom is crying out saying, heed me, pay attention to me, follow lady wisdom. Don’t follow lady folly. Don’t go your own way and do your own thing, but get into the word of God, begin to apply it to your life, begin to apply it to the problems. We’ve all got problems. We’ve all got struggles. So get to know God, the God of the Bible, get to know the word and apply the word of God to your life. And God’s word will bring his favor. God’s word will bring blessing. God’s word will bring health, Proverbs even says, to your bones. It’ll bring health to your physical body and to your spiritual body. And that’s what verse 33 is reminding us, is that though some may reject wisdom and remain simple, some may reject the wisdom of God and even become a mocker and scorn God’s truth and scorn God’s person. But there’s those who will choose to listen. And I want to go back to that just for a minute. Are you teachable? You see, that’s the message this morning. I don’t know what area of your life that maybe the Lord’s given you a rebuke and you’ve had trouble receiving that. I don’t know. The Holy Spirit knows. The Holy Spirit knows that. But are you teachable? Are you able to receive when someone corrects you? Are you able to receive when the Holy Spirit or the word of God, when’s the last time you were reading the Bible and it wasn’t for someone else, but it was like, whoa, God just spoke to me and I got to change some things. That’s really important for a pastor, right? Because we’re always like preparing a message and we’re always trying to lead a Bible study. But it’s really important for those of us who’ve been reading God’s word for a long time. When is the last time you read the Bible and like the Holy Spirit caused those words to jump off the page? You’re like, whoa, I got to change that. I got to go apologize to my wife. I’ve got to go act different at work. I’ve got to learn to keep my mouth closed and not say those things. Come on church. When’s the last time you let the Holy Spirit, you see, I believe this. The Holy Spirit will come. The Holy Spirit will come. The Holy Spirit will come. But if we keep saying, nope, don’t want to hear it. Nope. I’m hurting too bad. I can’t receive that. Eventually the Holy Spirit, and I don’t know when I’m so thankful that God is long suffering. I am so thankful that God never lets go of us easily. He keeps holding on. He keeps working. He keeps working your life. But eventually it’s going to become more difficult for you to hear from the Holy Spirit because your heart’s going to be hardened because of your disobedience. Let’s think about King Saul, the first King of Israel. I mean, there’s probably many examples in the Old Testament where we see this happening. King Saul was head and shoulders above everybody else. God really didn’t want to give him a King, but he gave him a King and he gave him a good one. King Saul had so much potential. He had so much potential to be a King, but at least on two occasions, he specifically disobeyed what Samuel had brought him as the word from the Lord. And the first time he received a rebuke, but he remained as King. The second time when Samuel showed up, though Saul pleaded with him, please forgive me and come and worship with me so everything will be okay. It’s a scary part of scripture for Samuel 15. And Samuel said to him, and even the Bible is clear, even Samuel is distressed. He doesn’t even want to see Saul not be the King. But God said, no, he, that’s it. He wouldn’t heed correction. And so now he’s not, he, his son will no longer, he’s not going to have a dynasty like he’s his King kingdom’s not going to continue. And there’s so many examples we could find in scripture friend. If the Holy Spirit is dealing with you about an area of your life that he wants to change, please respond to that. Hear the voice of the Lord. Hear that whisper. Hear what the scripture is saying to you and respond. That’s when you’re going to begin to see better outcomes. That’s when you’re going to begin to see the favorable outcomes, the favor of the Lord in your life. That’s when you’re going to begin to see God at work in your life. I’m amazed in our current culture today, how often people who aren’t walking with God and they’re living life however they want, but then something bad happens. And what’s the first thing we do? We blame God. We say, God, why did you let this happen? Well, what I want to ask is why would we ever even think that God had anything to do with it one way or the other, because we haven’t been walking with God. I’m so thankful for verse 33, but whoever listens to me will live in safety and at ease without fear of harm. I want to listen to the correction of the Holy Spirit in my life so that I can experience the good things of God. I want to wrap up with this. There’s dangers in rejecting rebuke, but there’s also great joy in receiving correction. Now Hebrews chapter 12, chapter 7 tells us that receiving correction at first, it never feels good. Like when somebody walks into your office or your wife or your husband comes, hey, could we sit down for a little bit? I need to talk with you about a couple of things. And you know, that joke you told at the dinner party the other night, well, I didn’t mean it that way. Okay. Just slow. Just, just take a breath. Receive it. Receive it. Okay. I could have said that differently. So there’s dangers and not being able to receive correction, but there’s also great joy in receiving correction. And we see this all throughout the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter eight, we can be a learner. And if we’re a learner, we’ll become wise. So live life with your hands open to God, not closed fist. If I’ve got it, I’m in control, but just live life with hands open and say, Lord, lead me, guide me. I want to learn, love, discipline, and you will gain knowledge. You know, it’s interesting how like in sports and music, music, we understand we’ve got to be disciplined. If I want to learn to play the piano or the violin, let’s say that’s the violin. This is the piano. You know, I’ve got to be disciplined, right? I’ve got, it’s going to take some time. I always laugh at somebody going up to someone and play the piano really well and say, Oh, I wish God would have given me that gift. It’s like what the gift of sitting on a chair for like hours and learning how to do it. Yes, many people have gifts, but they had to spend time developing those gifts. It took discipline to learn to play that, that violin. I almost said piano again, that violin, I mean, it took discipline. So love discipline and you will gain knowledge, respond to correction and you will receive honor. Be humble and you’ll enjoy life. That’s what all of these proverbs, there’s great joy in receiving correction. I want to ask that the worship team would come and if you’d all just stand with me this morning, I want to spend some time praying today with you and for you and I want to spend some time praying for myself in response to this message and I want to go back to one of my opening. One of my opening questions is who has permission in your life to correct you or to rebuke you? Now if you’re the rebuker, can I just ask that you pray about it before you go rebuke someone? Can I ask that if you’re the coach or the trainer, would you also be sensitive to the Holy Spirit? Because the Bible teaches us when we correct someone, we’re doing it to help them. We’re doing it to love them. We’re not trying to tear our wife down. We’re not trying to tear our husband down. We’re just trying to tear the church down. We’re trying to help one another, but who has permission in your life to bring correction? I hope the Lord does. I hope his word, I hope you’ve given the Bible permission to correct you, to guide you. This morning as we begin to close, I just want to open the altars up with that simple message. There’s dangers in not receiving rebuke. Are you open to the correction of the Lord? Would you take a few minutes today before we go, right where you’re at or up here at an altar, making that commitment to the Lord, Lord God, if you want to correct me, I’m available. I’m open because I am a flawed human being. I want to follow you with all my heart, but Lord, I need your help. I need your help. I don’t always get it just right. Can we take just a few minutes and let the Holy Spirit speak to us today? Lord, I pray that no one would go from this place feeling guilt or shame, but we would go from this, these moments, Lord, having heard from you, Lord, that we would rejoice that we can hear the correction of the Lord. And we know that if it’s from you and not just someone, but it’s from you, that it’s for our betterment. You’re going to help us grow. You’re going to change us and transform us. You’re going to bring us into full health and life. You’re going to help us to walk in wisdom and, and deliverance, Lord, and breakthroughs because we are walking in your ways. Thank you, Lord. So we’re going to, we’re going to begin to worship the Lord. And I want you to just take some time to begin to pray, seek the Lord. If you’d like to step out in the altar, I encourage you to do that this morning, Lord, help us to be teachable. Hi, I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdale. I’m Pastor Elvis Benes. And we’re from Columbia First Assembly. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know and we will be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special at our church and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi-generational church. We have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the word. We’re a church of the spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with him and we want to help you know God. We want to help you grow in God and we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.