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bring this here together this evening and hear your word be preached. Lord, just fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit as he comes forward to lay the message or give us the message that you laid on his heart, Lord. And Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Amen. So I mentioned Psalm 32 this morning in my sermon. You can probably tell that by the first two verses there. And so, naturally, while I was studying this thing out, verse number eight jumped out at me. Now, what I'm preaching about this evening is the importance of following instruction, the importance of following instruction. And I'm not doing this because I think that our church doesn't have people in here that are following instruction, but let's face it, every guy in here has put together a barbecue, taken apart your car, done something, and didn't follow the instruction. You know that's true, and I know the wives are lying. I hope they're listening. But the truth is that, you know, there's a great temptation out there when it comes to instruction to want to take shortcuts, right? And we all know that's true. You know, I'm guilty of doing it, you know, so I need this just as much as anybody else. But the Bible has a lot to say about this matter. And when I say the importance of following instruction, I'm not just talking about the Bible. That's obviously first and foremost, though, right? As Christians, we shouldn't be looked on as a people in the workplace or as people out in the community that don't follow instructions, right? The better you can learn to listen to God, the better you can learn to listen to His instruction, the better you're going to be at life in general, okay? So keep that in mind. This is really just kind of a broad subject, a broad sermon out there just to give you some tips on how to improve your ability to follow instructions, okay? Now, look at verse number 8. Psalm 32 verse 8 says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. And I would submit to you that this is God's desire for all of us. And if you're a boss or you're in any kind of a leadership position, you're a father, you're a mother, you know what? This is your goal for your children as well, right? He says, I will instruct thee, I will teach thee in the way which thou shall go. I will guide thee with mine eye. And so a big part of following instructions, being better at following instruction, is paying attention with your eyes, right? Observing details. That's a big one. Obviously, we're going to get into it more here momentarily. But you say, what do you mean by instructions? Well, instructions are directions, orders, commandments, statutes, you know, so on and so forth. We need to be good at following these things. And so that's what I want to show you in the Bible this morning or this evening. Turn to Proverbs chapter 6. So we're going to be all over the Proverbs. We're going to go to Psalms quite a bit and we will end in, I believe it's Matthew. So while you're turning to Proverbs chapter 6, I'm going to read for you Proverbs chapter 4 verse 13, which says, take hold. I'm sorry, take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her for she is thy life. So I'm going to read that one more time. It says, take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her for she is thy life. You know what the key is to keeping your job, guys, is taking fast hold of instructions, taking fast hold of what your boss says, taking fast hold of the policies and procedures that are in the workplace. The same goes for your family. Where do we get the wisdom? Where do we get the instructions? Where do we get the statues to raise our families correctly? Well, we get it from the Bible, right? And the sooner that we learn to take fast hold of these things, the more successful and the more sooner we're going to have a successful family. So don't think this is just for the man. It's not just for the man. It's for all of us. So you're there in Proverbs chapter six. Look at verse 23. It says, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You ever meet people that just seem like they're always out of place, whether it's at work, like just nothing goes right for them and they're just always basically just go on the opposite way of everybody else and not in a good way. Right now, as a church here in this community, we're kind of like going upstream and everybody else is just floating downstream, just taking it easy. You know, that's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about is a person that just is always in trouble, just doesn't seem to get it. Everything's always going wrong. They just can't ever seem to get their footsteps in order. Why is that? It's because they have failed to understand that reproofs or criticism and instructions are the way of life. God is a God of order and he has set things up the way that he set them up and he's given us instructions to follow. Right. It's not just important to follow the Bible to be a good Christian. That's obviously important, but it's also important to follow instructions wherever you're at in life. Right. Especially out in the workplace, especially when you're doing things, you're building something, you're putting something together. It is important to pay attention to those instructions. But you know what? One of the ways that we're going to grow as Christians is by reproofs, by correction. Anybody here ever run into somebody that just won't receive correction? Yeah. Not pleasant to work with. They're not pleasant to serve with, are they? They don't learn. That is how we learn. We learn by correction. Right. If you want to advance as a Christian, which hopefully everybody in here does, you need to learn to take reproof. That's the whole point. That's one of the biggest points of church. Right. Is to get our toes stepped on, to have God tell us what we're doing wrong so that we can improve. It's really a simple thing, but it's hard to do. And the thing that gets in the way a lot of times is pride. That's what does it. That guy at work that just doesn't want to take reproof, he doesn't want to take correction, I guarantee you it's pride that is preventing that person from doing that. But in this verse here, it says reproofs of instruction are the way of life. So we want to understand that. We want to make sure that we're in the way of life so that we can succeed out there in the world. Now leave that chapter there. Go to Proverbs chapter number 13. Proverbs chapter number 13. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read Proverbs chapter 10 verse 17, which says, He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction, but he that refuseth reproof heareth. One more time. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction. So you want to say, how do I know if I'm in God's will? How do I know if I'm doing a good job at work? No one's telling me. Well, one of the ways you're going to know is whether or not you're keeping instruction. That's how you're going to know. Because you know what? You might work in a place where your boss isn't going to always pat you on the back and tell you what a great job that you've done. You know what a hero you are. You know what I mean? You're not always going to be in that position and you may begin to wonder, well, what's going on here? Am I not pleasing? Am I not doing a good job? Well, the real test to know that is whether or not you can keep instruction. That's what it says in the last part of the verses. But he that refuseth reproof heareth. And we don't want to be a people that errors. So just just listen to me. I'm not going to take up a lot of your time this evening, but I do think this will be a blessing and that this will help you in every area of your life. Now, you're there in Proverbs 13. Look at verse number 18. It says, Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction. But he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. Now, who comes to mind when you read that verse? I don't even have to say it. Most of you, you should already know. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction. Kick the guy out of church. Say, hey, this is what you need to do to get right. He doesn't do any. Poverty, minivan. You want to wind up living in a minivan out in the village? Guess what? We're out in someone's driveway. Learn to refuse instructions. And that is the path that's going to take you down. We don't want to be a people like that. We don't need to be like God doesn't desire that for your life. It doesn't profit at all. It doesn't benefit us at all. We need to understand this concept here. We need to learn to take reproof. We need to learn to take correction. Right, kids? You need to learn to take correction from your parents. Employees need to learn to take correction from their employers. Put the pride aside and just get this in your head that you're going to follow the instructions. I'm telling you, you want to get your promotions. You want to get success. You want to be blessed. Follow instructions. I mean, that's how it is with God. We went over that this morning about the judgment seat of Christ, right? Why would you think it's any different when you're out there working in the world or you're raising your family or whatever it is that you're doing? If you want to succeed, learn to follow instructions. It's very important. And look, we all from time to time don't want to follow instructions. I'm just as guilty. Just this afternoon, Jessica was making up those Idaho potatoes, you know, in the instapot. And she found these frozen chicken patties or chicken burgers in the freezer. She's like, you want to cook these on the grill? I was like, yeah. Any chance I get to use that grill is great. So I'm out there and I'm struggling to open up the package. I'm like, this is stupid. So I go inside. I'm like, where's the scissors at? And she's like, well, I didn't put scissors out there. It says peel here in the corner. You know, if I was paying attention to detail, right? If I was the person that was following instructions in every area of my life, I wouldn't have had to go through that embarrassment. So, oh, peel here. Oh, the thing comes right open. I'm sitting here trying to poke my finger through it as hard as I can. I got a butter knife. I'm like, I just won't go through this thing, man. What's going on? It's all me. It's because I refused to follow instructions. Right? And that's obviously a silly example. But nonetheless, there's people that that basically they don't follow any instructions. Right? And they just basically kick against the pricks their whole entire life. Nothing goes right for them. They can't get anything accomplished. You can't do anything. They can't grow. And it's all because they won't listen. They won't hearken unto counsel. So go back to Proverbs chapter number eight. Proverbs chapter number eight. So that leads me into my first point. If you want to become better at following instructions, learn to listen. If you want to get better at following instructions, you have got to get better at listening. You need to make sure that you're listening. Right? You're sitting in training at work, guys. You need to listen to that training. Your boss gives you a task. You need to listen to it. You need to observe. Right? You need to behold this thing with your eyes so that you can see the details that you might otherwise miss. The key point here is hearing, listening. You're there in Proverbs chapter eight. Look at verse 33. It says hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not. Go to Proverbs chapter 15. So right off the bat, I mean, you're going to learn a lot about instruction when you read Proverbs. Right? You read the Psalms. You're not going to find the word listen a whole lot in the Bible, but you will find the word hear. You will find the word harken. Right? Because people listen to sound. I guarantee you there's people, there was people in this church this morning, they were listening to the words coming out of my mouth. Right? But they were just sounds. They weren't harkening. They didn't hear. It didn't go into the eardrums and down to the heart. That's the kind of listening that we're talking about here. He says hear instruction. Don't just hear sound waves coming out of somebody's mouth. Right? When your boss gives you a task or kids, your mom or your dad's telling you to do something, don't just hear the words. Don't just hear the sound. Right? But hear the instruction. Observe the instruction, what they are trying to communicate to you so that you can do it. That's how you're going to succeed. That's how you're going to become better at following instructions. Hear instruction and be wise. So when we decide, you know, I'm going to hear instruction, I'm going to actually harken to that. Guess what? You will become wise because you will know what's being taught. You will know what they're talking about and you can apply that and that is going to turn into wisdom for you. So while you're going to Proverbs 15, let me read for you Deuteronomy 12, 28. He says, Observe and hear all these words which I command thee. Why? Why does he say that? He says, So that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee forever when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. So why do we want to become better at listening? Why do we want to become better at following instructions? So that life will go well with us. You know what? If we would just sometimes stop and observe our surroundings, you know what? We would probably make life a lot less of a troublesome thing, you know, from time to time. Like that chicken example I told you, right? I wasted five minutes trying to open that stupid thing up. I'm sitting there, I'm literally trying to think of what kind of plastic casing this is. I'm like, is this made out of Kevlar? Is that why it's so expensive? Is that why organic chicken breasts are so expensive? Because they use Kevlar packaging to close this stuff up? This is dumb. I'm out there getting mad. I just got done writing this sermon or finishing it. I started this a few days ago, right? And right over my head, right over my head. Oh, wow. So in Deuteronomy, I didn't have you turn there. I just want you to hear this again. He says, Observe and hear all these words which I command thee that it may go well with thee. Right? What are we trying to talk about here? We're trying to talk about having life go well with us. OK, now, obviously, we're always going to have tribulations and trials. We get that, right? But you know what? We can eliminate a lot of our own problems when we listen and hearken to wise counsel. Proverbs 15, look at verse 32. He says, He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. So we need to condition ourselves to hear criticism, to hear reproof. And that's why you guys keep coming back to this church, I'm guessing. Right? Because sometimes I preach things that aren't very well digested. They aren't very well received or they aren't, you know, they aren't very pleasant sometimes. You know, I mean, think about that. If you want the smooth things, you want that light doctrine, you want to be told what's going to scratch those itching ears of yours, you can go right down here to this Episcopalian church or you can go down to Fairview and go to Vector Church or you can go to Todd White's church. I mean, take your pick. Right? It's not going to be like that here. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Ecclesiastes chapter 5. So while you turn to them, I'm just going to read the verse again. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. There's a reason why that, I mean, you guys have been so successful out soul winning. It's because you keep hearing instruction and applying the things that you're learning and using them out there. Right? And what's the result? The fruit gets increased. Right? That's the whole thing. Now, if we decide that, you know what, someday I'm just going to refuse that. I really don't think I need that. You lift yourself up with pride. Guess what? I guarantee you at some point, life is going to get very difficult for you. So you're there in Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Look at verse number 1. It says, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Now, keep your place there. We'll probably come back to it. But go to 1 Samuel chapter 15. 1 Samuel chapter 15. Now, the first thing that jumps out at me when I read this, it's like, OK, just keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear. OK, I understand that. You know, a person, when they come to church, you should be more ready to hear than to just say everything that's on your mind. Right? Because if you're sitting in the back and you're just talking the whole time, you're not listening. Right? Remember what point number 1 was? Listening. Right? Listening. That's what's going to increase your ability to follow instructions. Listening to the word of God. I used to go to this church at Tacoma's old IFB church. You know, the pastor, he was saved. You know, he went soloing. You know, obviously there's some things we don't agree with, but whatever. You know, nothing that I would consider major. But nonetheless, there was this family that would come in there and they would come to every single service, every single service. They would sit in the very back row and the husband and wife would literally talk from the time the song leader got up to the time that the altar call was over. They would literally just talk the whole, the whole time, man. And I'm not even exaggerating. You can ask Jessica, you can ask the kids the whole time. I don't even know what they're talking about. There was like two times where I sat kind of close to the back and I mean, I don't know how they do it. Just, just talking the whole time, the whole time, not paying attention to anything the pastor's saying at all. Literally talking for an hour and a half, talking about the problems, talking about the neighbors, talking about who knows what, how to dye apples different colors. I don't even know. But I was just like, man, what is wrong with these people? And you know what? Those people are this verse right here. They didn't come to church ready to hear. They came to church in vanity. But before we get there, we need to find out what he's talking about here. So he says, keep thy foot when thou goes to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil. Right? So one thing that also jumps out at me at this verse is that these people don't even consider that what they're doing is wrong. So the people that commit this sacrifice of fools, right, they don't even understand that that's what they're doing, that it's evil. So let's follow a little bit of scripture here. Look at 1 Samuel 15, look at verse number 22. It says, And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. So what's more important here to God? Is it the burnt offering? Or is it that you listen and obey God's word? Is it that we listen, that we hearken, that we obey his instructions and his commandments? That is more important than the sacrifice. See, this family that would just sit in the back of the church and just yap the whole time, they probably thought they were pretty good Christians. In fact, I'll tell you, they did. The guy was pretty arrogant. In fact, when I told him I was going to start a church someday in my house, you know what he told me? There's no reason to do that anymore. There's community centers all over the place. There's schools. There's gyms. Nobody should need to do that. That's like Stone Age type stuff. That's what he told me. Yeah. I mean, you know what, though? This guy didn't come to church to learn. He came to church to look good. He came, you know, sure, he sacrificed his time. He was there Sunday morning. He was there Sunday night. He was there Wednesday. If there was an activity, they were there. But they weren't hearkening unto God's counsel. They weren't following any of the instructions. They weren't listening to the preaching. They weren't listening to anything that's going on. Now, real quick, turn to Hosea chapter six and we'll see this similar thought here. So right after the book of Daniel, go to Hosea chapter number six. Go past the big prophets. Go past Daniel and go right to Hosea chapter six and look at verse number six. Hosea six six says this for I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Now, isn't that interesting? Now, leave your place there and go to Mark chapter number seven. You see the importance here of listening. You see the importance of obedience. How are you going to obey any instructions, any commandments if you don't listen, if you don't hearken, if you don't hear, if you're not paying attention to details, how are you going to grow? How are you going to accomplish a task? How are you going to make your boss happy? How are we going to please God if we don't listen to the details? The answer is you're not. It's not going to happen. All right. So remember, we're still trying to answer this question here. What in the world is he talking about when he says it is come to church more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. So Jesus is going to explain that for us right here. Mark chapter seven. Look at verse number six. Verse seven. How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. So go back to Ecclesiastes real quick. So what did Jesus say? The deal is here. What did he say? First of all, he quotes Isaiah chapter 29, verse 13. And then in verse seven, he says, How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. So he's saying, Hey, look, yeah, these people honor me with their lips, right? They say God, they say brother, they say all the Christian lingo, right? They say their believers, they say they do good works, they run their mouths, right? But their hearts are far from me. Isn't that not what we saw in 1 Samuel 15, Hosea chapter six. So read Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse one again. It says, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. So what is he talking about here? Vain worship. That's what he's talking about, vain worship. I mean, think about it. Didn't Michael Melfi come in here and sit down here for like almost a year like this? He didn't come to church ready to hear, right? All he did was give a sacrifice as a fool. That's all he did. It's just vain. It was vanity. And I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to pick on these people. But it's a fact. It's the truth, right? They sacrifice all that time. Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesdays for nothing. For nothing. And you don't have to verbally run your mouth either. I mean, you can just have your mind going off and just thinking about all these different things. And I can't believe he kicked my boy Josh out. I can't believe he's against him. I can't believe this. I can't believe that. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to glare at him. I'm going to backbite him. I'm going to talk about his preaching. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. You know what? That's the sacrifice of fools. Jesus looks at that and says, you know, you people honor me with your lips. You honor me with your time, but your hearts are far from me. That, my friend, is the sacrifice of fools. And they didn't even consider that that was evil. But that's what it is. Go to Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22. So why you turn there? I got one more for you. Proverbs 19, 27. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. So if we want to get better at listening so that we can get better at following instructions, we need to pick and choose and make sure we're not listening to that instruction that causes us to err, right? Because look, guys, you can go to work and you can listen to that guy that's bitter, that guy that's angry, you know, the company guy who's been there for 20, 30 years and knows every problem, that knows everything that's wrong about every process and procedure. You can listen to that guy and all it's going to do is get you angry, get you all fired up, and get you to go the same way that he's going. So that's why he says, cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth thee to err, right? What would that be like for a Christian? The TV, Hollywood, the entertainment industry, music, right? You go turn on Bun B and Bizzle and Pyrex and all these Christian home dog rappers. Guess what? That is instruction that will cause you to err. You know Lecrae? That music is instruction that will cause you to err. Go turn on your country rap star or your country rock singer or whatever it's called. Guess what? That guy's going to cause you to err. Now, look, we can't help but hear these things out in the world, right? But there's a big difference when you've already decided in your heart not to like that, not to yoke yourself up with that, right? It's not going to affect you the same. You see, that's the difference. In your mind, you sanctified that. You put that without the camp, right? You put that without the camp and you say, you know what? I don't like that garbage. Yeah, okay, I'm walking through the store and it's planned, but guess what? It doesn't have the same effect on you, okay? So we need to understand that, cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth thee to err from the words of knowledge. This world is filled with people that will cause you to err from the instructions that God has given you. There's people at work that will cause you to err from the instructions that would otherwise make you successful. There are neighbors, mom, that will cause you to err from the instructions in the words of knowledge that you hear at church. It's a fact, so we need to be very careful. So when I say listen, I'm going to say listen to everything, okay? Listen to that which is righteous and holy, okay? So point number one, if we want to be better at following instructions, we need to learn to listen, right? We need to learn to listen, to hearken, to absorb information. That's what's going to cause us to grow. Now, point number two is this, immediately practice or recall what you have just learned. Proverbs 22, look at verse 17. It says, bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise, now don't miss this, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. So he says, bow down thine ear. It means have a humble attitude, right? Make sure your ears are humble, make sure you're actually hearkening, you're actually listening to the words, the communication, the thought, the instruction that's coming from somebody, right? Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. So point number two, immediately practice or recall what you have just learned. So if somebody's giving you instruction, like we're preaching a sermon, you should determine in your heart that you're going to apply these things. You should write these things down if you can, or you should know where to go. Like this morning, what do we talk about? We talk about eternal security, right? If there's verses that maybe you don't always use, but you could possibly use them, make sure you know how to get to them. Look, some people retain information by writing notes, others don't. I get that. Look, I understand that. But I'll tell you what, you've got to write it down or you've got to have some way. People that can just recall stuff on the fly from like five, ten decades ago, you know, those people are rare. Let's just be honest. Those people are rare. I mean, think about it. If you can't write it down right now, you don't know it. I'll just say, that's why we read, that's why we study, right? But you really don't know that information. You might be familiar with it, right? But you don't know it. Now, the soul-winding verses, most of us in here, we don't need to write those down because we use them all the time, right? So they're written down in our hearts. But you know what? If you stop using those things, guess what? That's going to go away, right? So point number two is immediately practice or recall what you just learned. Here's a way you can apply this to your Bible reading. This is what I've started doing recently. Read a chapter of the Bible, right? And then when you're done, stop for a second, stop for about 30 seconds and just try to recall as much information as you can, okay? So read Matthew chapter two, right? Be like, okay, Joseph went down to Egypt. Okay, you know, and just start to recall the different things that you read and then kind of go back through the chapter real quick and see if there's anything that you missed. And you'll be surprised at how much more you're going to know, how much more you're going to remember after you read the whole book by doing that. Yes, it's going to slow you down, right? But let's say you've already read the Bible through like one or two times. I would really recommend that you do that. At least just take a few seconds to try to recall what you just read and do that with anything, right? Your boss puts you through training. You know, take the notes, take those instructions, read them and try to recall without looking at the notes, which you've just learned. You'll be surprised at how much better you're going to be able to recall that stuff. See, this is the mistake I make when I write sermons and I don't internalize them. Okay. When I, when I just write them, I'm in a hurry and you know what? I work 11 hours a day. Sometimes I don't always have time to study. You know, and you say, yeah, this is being negligent. No, it's just life, right? Sometimes life just gets you. Sometimes I just have to go off of what I've already learned before I moved here. Okay. Sometimes that happens. Other times I have more time to study certain subjects and things like that come up. But one thing I'll tell you, if you want to learn to recall this information, you've got to practice it. You've got to practice it. Look, read your Bible, right? Read that chapter. Just stop for a few seconds and just think about everything that you just read. And you know what? You're going to be much smarter at the end of doing that than if you didn't do it. And actually I read a study, I think Harvard did this, where they took 30 college students, they gave them a book, just a real simple book. They had, they had one group read it, take a test. They had the other group read a chapter and pause for 45 seconds and think about everything they read and then chapter two and so on and so forth, right? And then they compare the results. The group that paused after each chapter and recalled that information smoked the other group. Like, like the numbers are a joke. I mean, you might as well have not even read the book. I mean, it was, it was embarrassing. So I would just keep that in mind. So when you're reading the Bible, just learn to do that. Learn to read, stop, think about what you just read. Because look, our minds wander. Usually we got a lot of distractions in life, especially if you read early in the morning, you know you're tired. You know, especially if you're not a morning person, but you're trying to discipline yourself, you know, you're waking up. I've done this before. I've read a whole chapter and been like, man, what did I just read? What in the world? So just, just a quick little tip there. Point number two, immediately practice, recall what you just learned. And I got that from this verse here. Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. So what do we need to do? We need to immediately practice or recall the information. So if it's something that you can practice, go and practice it. Go and do it so that you don't lose it, right? The saying that if you don't, if you don't use it, you lose it. Guess what? That's, there's some truth in that, right? I don't use math, so I've forgotten almost everything. I have to call brother Moses when I need help with math. All right, let's move on here. Turn to Psalm chapter 50, Psalm chapter 50. And I will tell you this, too. You know, taking notes is a good way to recall information. It really is. You're going to miss some stuff here and there. But, you know, taking notes is a good way to recall information. That was Pastor Mendez's biggest tip to us in the spiritual leadership class. He's like, you know, if you guys want to learn how to preach better and how to write better sermons, right, how to outline them better, just start taking notes when people preach. And that way you can kind of see what, how they format their sermons, you know? So I did that for a whole year and it taught me a lot. I'm like, okay, this is how this person got to this conclusion. You know, this is how this person got to this conclusion. And it's like, wow. Yeah, I learned a lot about different preaching styles and different ways to put sermons together. And I use all of those, right? I use all of them. That's why sometimes I have points. Other times I may not have points, but I just have, like, one subject. I learned that from writing down the way that people preach. So you're in Psalm 50. I'm going to read for you Psalm chapter 85, verse 8, which says this. I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. But let them not turn again to folly. So we want to learn something and we want to keep it. Right. If we're messed up, if we're doing folly, we're doing foolish things and we learn that we're doing foolish things. Our goal should be not to go back to doing those things. Right. That's the goal. That's what that's what we're learning about here. That's why I say point number two, immediately practice or recall what you just learned so that you can practice it. And so that you can implement it in your life. So you're there in Psalm chapter 50. Look at verse 16. But unto the wicked, God saith, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes? Or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth? Verse 17. Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee. Now, this is obviously God talking about wicked people who would try to preach his word. He's like, what do you have to do with my counsel and my knowledge? Who is this that darkeneth his speech? You know, like like in Job. But you know what? You can apply this to anything. You can apply this to work. You know, a slothful worker, a bitter worker, somebody who's bitter and angry, who doesn't follow instructions, who doesn't follow procedures. I mean, think about what business do they have teaching you anything? That's how you would apply this to you. He says, seeing that thou hatest instruction and casteth my words behind thee. So if I want to get better at my job, I'm not going to go to the guy that takes the most shortcuts. Right. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go to the person who's had the most success. I'm going to go to the person who's doing it right. And I'm going to say, hey, can you help me out? Hey, can you help me understand this? Hey, what tips can you give me to be more efficient? Right. That's how we want to be. So let's move on here. Go back to Psalm 32 where we first started. Go back to Psalm 32 where we first started. So real quick, point number one was if you want to become better at following instructions, you need to learn to listen. Point number two is immediately practice or recall what you have just learned. Why? So that we don't return to the same way. Remember, the goal here is forward momentum, is to always get better, to always strive forward. That's the point of listening to instructions. That's what they are there for. Right. To make the way of life easier, to make the way of life better, to make you have success. So point number three is this. Don't adopt the mindset of a mule. Don't adopt the mindset of a mule. He said, what are you talking about? Psalm 32, look at verse 9. Right. So we don't want to adopt the mule attitude. You ever wonder where the saying, don't be a, you know, what came from? It came from this chapter right here. Okay. I'm just kidding. I don't know if that's true, but I figured it might wake you up a little bit. Right. Point number three is don't be a mule. What do I mean by that? Well, if you think about it, you know, a mule or a horse, an untrained mule or a horse is stubborn. Right. They're stubborn. That's why you have to put a bit and bridle in their mouth to control them, to force them to do what you want them to do. Right. Who knows Christians like that? I'm sure we all do. Who knows people at work like that? Who knows neighbors like that? We all know people like that. What they do is make life a just a nightmare on themselves. And it all goes back to being stubborn, to being prideful, to not wanting to follow instructions. That's what it boils down to. We don't want to be like that. Not at all. Right. Turn to John chapter 3. Turn to John chapter 3. Why are you turning there? I'm just going to read for you Proverbs 5 23, which says this. He shall die without instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray. So the Bible says people that want to not hold fast to instruction, ignore instruction, ignore commandments, ignore wisdom. What's the end result? Death. Not good. Bad. He shall die without instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray. It's easy to say. It's easy to preach, but it's harder to follow. Look, we just have to make up our minds and we're going to put pride aside and we're going to say, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and just take the chewing. I'm going to take the reproof. I'm going to take the correction and just follow instructions. Right. We don't want to be like the mule that we read about here in verse nine. So be not as a horse or as the mule, which have no understanding. Right. So how do we not become like the mule? You get understanding. You follow instructions, you learn, you apply the things that you, that you, that you're taught. That is how we become better. Okay. Now, number four, number four, strengthen your conscience. Strengthen your conscience. Say, what in the world are you talking about? Trust me, I'll clear it up here. John chapter three, look at verse 19. The thing you're going to learn about here is the Bible says that the Bible, no matter what, it strengthens your conscience. It produces awareness whether you want it or not. It produces awareness. Okay. Look at verse 19. It says, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. This is why mankind doesn't like the Bible because the old man, the deeds of the flesh are evil. Right. And so when the Bible is preached, when the Bible is communicated to people, it exposes those deeds and they don't like it. But what, but why does it do that? Because it strengthens, it strengthens their conscience. The word of God is powerful. And when it's preached, people realize, uh oh, I'm wrong. That book's against me. I don't like it. That's what it's saying. So I said, point number four is we need to learn to strengthen our conscience. This will help you follow instructions. This will help you to become better. And you say, why? Because when you take your deeds and you bring them before the light, guess what? You're going to grow. It's going to strengthen your conscience. Right. And this works in other ways too. For example, when we're out soul winning and we tell people that want to kick us out of apartment complexes, Hey, we're not violating the law. Soliciting means you're selling something. We aren't selling anything. What happens? They get angry. Why is that? They don't want to hear the constitution. Right. They don't want to hear the constitution because that in itself, that law, those laws basically shine the light on their evil deeds of them trying to stop us from doing what we're doing. It's really that same concept. So instructions, even if they're not biblical, right, procedures, laws, they shine light and they reprove evil in many cases. In many cases. Right. I mean, think about it. The local ordinance for Boise regarding soliciting. Anytime I've quoted that to somebody, they get angry. Right. Apartment, you can't be here. You got no soliciting, no door to door. The law clearly states that we're not soliciting. Soliciting is selling something. That's clearly what the ordinance says. Right. But when we read that ordinance to them, they, Oh, no, no, no, no. I don't want to hear. I don't want to hear. I don't want to hear. That's what they say. Right. I don't want to hear. I just want you to leave. I'll call the cops. Why do they do that? Because that ordinance strengthens their conscience to the truth, which they don't like. It holds them accountable, which is now what they want. They just want you to leave. They don't care about the law. I don't care about the instructions. Right. It's just, it's the same thing that we find in these two verses here. The word of God will strengthen your conscience. So obviously we need that. Right. But so do just any old instructions. I mean, think about it. Let's say you're going to put together a barbecue. You just toss the instructions out, but you're not mechanically inclined. You can't just figure these types of things out. I mean, guess what? You put that thing together, you know, three quarters of the way through and it's all messed up. It won't heat. Doesn't stand very well. Just keeps falling over. And then somebody comes over like more than likely your wife guys and says, Hey, if you follow these instructions, what's going to happen? You're probably going to get angry and be like, you know, get that away from me. I don't need that. I could do it myself. Right. You know, that's true. You know, everybody in here, every man in here has done that. Something like that. So number four, you need to learn to strengthen your conscience from a Christian aspect. You do that from reading and studying the Bible, hearing, preaching, meditating on God's things. But, you know, out in the workforce or whatever it is you're trying to do, follow the instructions of the people that are wise. You know, those instructions came without appliance for a reason. So one of the hard things about my job as an appliance tech is a lot of manufacturers are withholding purposely technical information. They're trying to make it hard for us to figure out the problems so that the customer will call them. And for you to have LG come out to your doorstep, you're looking at 130 just for them to even show up. I think 10 years ago to have Maytag come to your door was almost $200. You know, and independents are a lot cheaper. So what these guys do is they'll give you a drawing or they'll give you a wiring diagram or they'll give you just little bits of information to make it hard for you to figure out what's actually going on when the appliance is broke. And so that's one of the reasons why I wouldn't recommend necessarily that young people would get into that industry. I just, I don't know, I don't see it going too well, to be honest. And I'm doing it, but obviously I'm doing it for a season. And I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but I think other trades are probably a little bit more safe, a little bit more secure. Because like with you, brother Jeff, plumbing, I mean, a drawing's a drawing, right? They want you to know where the pipes are. They want you to know, you know, where to hook up the hot water heater, right? Well, guess what? Whirlpool doesn't want you to always know what this wire on the circuit board does and what this wire to this, you know, heating element does. It's true. Caden will tell you that. I used to take him on a lot of calls with me and be like, man, I don't get this. I mean, now we're resorting to Ohm's Law, which is good. We are starting to brush up on our math a little bit. It would make Moses happy, you know? I have to actually use Ohm's Law sometimes just to figure out how much current's in a wire and just to figure out circuits and problems. And that's a good thing because I'm increasing my knowledge, right? I am following instructions, but at the same time, it's really difficult. And, you know, a lot of times the values that they give you on these tech sheets, they just aren't right. They'll say, well, this heating element, this specification, it winds up not even being that. And that's scandalous. That's cheap, man. That's not right. And so I don't know why I'm talking about this. But point number four is learn to strengthen your conscience, okay? Instructions will strengthen your conscience. They'll strengthen your mind. They will point you in the right direction, okay? Look, when I was in the military, the people that always had the most success were those that knew the policies. The standard operating procedures. When I worked for the government, it was the same thing. The people that knew the rules and regulations were the people that won. You walk into a meeting and you know the regs, guess what? You got a leg up on everybody else who doesn't. You know, this is why when you go to people's doors, I mean, I hear it from all of you guys. People are like, man, you know the Bible so well. Even when they don't get saved, like, you know, even the Mormon elders will tell you guys, man, you guys really know the Bible well. You know, and that's a great thing and we want to keep it that way. But it's because you've strengthened your conscience by reading and studying this book, right? And guess what? It's the same thing in your job. Learn to follow these instructions and it will strengthen your conscience. It will help you get your promotion, so on and so forth. So let's move on here. Go to Proverbs chapter number one. Proverbs chapter number one. So I said point number one is if you want to become better at following instructions, we need to learn to listen. Point number two, immediately practice or recall what you have learned. Point number three, don't be as the mule which has no understanding, stubborn, just rebellious, not interested in reproof or correction. Point number four, learn to strengthen your conscience, right? The rules, the regulations, the procedures, the instructions are there to benefit you, right? Don't look at them as boring, right? And think about it. It's hard to read through some of these procedures sometimes, right? Everybody's job, I guarantee you, you have a regulation, you have an instruction that's a mile long. But you know, and that's hard work reading that. And the Bible says that studying is awareness of the flesh, right? But you know what, understanding that, like, okay, that's just a weakness in the flesh. Now, okay, I got it. Now I can overcome that, right? That's the attitude that you should have, that we should have. Number five, real simple, learn the Proverbs. Real simple. You'd be like, oh, you're just not studying? You just want to throw something out there? No, I'm serious. Learn the Proverbs. You should read, like, what's today, the 15th? Say the 15th or the 16th? 13th. Yeah, read Proverbs chapter 13. Look, I don't always do this, but, you know, every so often for like a few months, like, I'll read. In addition to my study, in addition to my Bible reading, like, if it's on the first, I'll read Proverbs chapter 1, and then I'll go on to my other Bible reading. Proverbs chapter 2 on day two, you get what I'm saying? And in a month, you'll have read the whole book of Proverbs. And if you apply what I'm teaching you, you read Proverbs chapter 1 on the first, and you just think about these things as you're reading them. Proverbs will, you've got to be careful, though, because I've done this where I've read Proverbs chapter 1, and next thing you know, an hour's gone by of me just recalling and thinking about this. But nonetheless, do it anyways. Just read Proverbs chapter 1 and think about it, right? And if you commit to doing this for a certain amount of time, I mean, think about it. In three months, how much more wisdom, how much more knowledge you're going to get, right? You could read the whole book of Proverbs in a month, and it doesn't even take very long, right? So what I'm saying is if you want to learn how to follow instructions, learn to read the Proverbs. Learn to understand the Proverbs. Look at Proverbs chapter number 1. It says, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. You say, what are Proverbs? Well, Proverbs are short sayings of basic, basically truths that are in society. Like, you ever heard practice makes perfect? That's a proverb that we say today. Birds of a feather flock together. You know, that's generally true, right? We've seen that in our church. And so these are things here. But the Proverbs that Solomon teaches, right? The Bible says Solomon was the wisest man to ever live. We want to know these things, right? If you want to learn how to get wise, you want to learn how to gain knowledge, you want to learn how to follow instructions, you should be reading Proverbs often, okay? You should be reading these very often. Look at verse 2. He says, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding. So words of understanding, they require us to perceive them. They require us to break them down and digest them and to understand them. Verse 3, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, to give subtleties to the simple, to the young man, knowledge, and discretion. You know, I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time somebody said, you know, I'm just not, I'm just a simple person. You know, I'd like to go to church, but I just, I'd like to read the King James Bible, but I'm simple, right? I'm not very smart. A lot of people will say that. In my lifetime, I've had a lot of people say that. Well, I read the NIV. I read the ESV because I'm just not smart. I just can't understand the King James. Now, I don't know if they're just playing the sympathy card or what it is, but it's like, look, what do the Proverbs say here? What does Proverbs 4 say? To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge, and discretion. If you think you're not as smart as you ought to be or you want to gain wisdom, which hopefully everybody in here wants to gain wisdom and understanding, a good way to do it is to read Proverbs and study it. Think about it. I think it doesn't take long to read any of these chapters in Proverbs and to just take 30 seconds and just think about what you can recall. And look, you're not going to recall everything out of Proverbs chapter 16. I'll tell you that right now because the Proverbs don't always necessarily follow in order. It's just a lot of truth, just a megaton of wisdom coming at you, right? Some, you might have like three or four Proverbs about the same subject, and then it goes to something else, right? But I'll tell you what, if you just take a few months, read each chapter, just take a few seconds and think and just recall what you just read. Look, you're going to be so much smarter at the end of the month than you were before. And remember, that's the goal here. Look at verse five. A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Right? So a wise person is going to increase in learning. So don't just say, well, you know what, I'm pretty wise. I'm pretty smart. Well, amen, praise God if you are, but you should still seek to increase your learning until the day you die. As long as you're living, you should be trying to increase in wisdom, because you know what, after that, there is no more wisdom. There's no wisdom in the grave. Isn't that what Solomon said? There's no wisdom in the grave. Look at verse six. To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. Verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So point number five is very simple. Learn the proverbs. Look, I'm telling you, just take me up on this challenge. Just decide to do it for one month. Just one month. Start next month, okay? Because we're already halfway through the month, or even start today. It still benefits you, okay? And just on day number one, on the first, read Proverbs one, all the way to the end of the month. And just do that. And then at the end of the month, so next month, tell me how you're doing. I guarantee you, you're going to have sermon ideas. You're going to have points. You're going to have solutions to your problems. And look, yeah, you're going to still have problems, right? We all do. You're going to have issues. You're going to have things that you go through. But I'll tell you what. You're going to be a lot better off than had you not done it, okay? So let's move on here. Don't worry. I know everybody's tired. I'm almost done here. This is the last one I've got for you, okay? Point number six, if you want to learn to follow instructions better, learn to strive to become wiser every single day. Learn to become a better father every single day. Learn to become a better wife every single day. Learn to become a better worker every single day. Learn to become a better church member every single day. Learn to become a Christian, a better Christian, I mean, every single day. I just got done saying that. But turn to Proverbs chapter number nine, Proverbs chapter number nine. So Proverbs chapter nine, look at verse nine. It says in Proverbs nine, nine, give instruction to a wise man, and he will yet, I'm sorry, he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning, right? So the more wisdom you get, right? The more just you become, the more you decide to abide in Christ like we learned this morning. Guess what? You will increase in learning. It's never going to be too late for you. It's never going to be, oh, I'm too old. Only if I was 30 or only if I was 50, only if I was this. No, it doesn't matter. If you're breathing, you still got breath in you, you can increase in your learning. That is what we're learning here. Now, turn to Proverbs chapter 12. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you Proverbs 19, verse 20, which says this, hear counsel and receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. So it is God's expectation that we be wiser in our latter end than we are today. You say, well, I'm 80 years old. You're still not dead yet. Learn to increase your wisdom, and you're going to do that by doing everything that I've told you. Following instructions. Learn to follow your procedures, your instructions. Look, it's the way of life. God is a God of order. If you learn to just get that through your head, you will be much better off. Now, the last little bit that I've got for you, right, if you take anything away besides listening, take this away. Learn to ask questions, right? You want to learn to become wiser every single day? Do it by asking questions. So understand this. Ask questions and obtain a clear understanding of the standards and expectations that are being given to you. I'm terrible at this. I'll just tell you right now, I'm terrible at this. I'm a quiet person, believe it or not, and in the workplace, I don't always like to speak up, right? Most of my career, most of my life, most of my jobs, I have just sat there and done what I was told. And I still do that today. Now, I will voice concerns a lot more now because God basically put me in a situation to where I had to speak up. He promoted me to sergeant when I was in the military. He promoted me to supervisor when I was working for the government. And he put me in these positions to where I had to go into meetings with high-powered people and I had to give an account. I had to give answers. I had to ask questions. I learned that. You know, I learned, you know, I've got to put my introvert self aside, right? I've got to put my quiet, shy guy self aside and just learn to ask questions because sometimes people don't always speak clearly. I don't always speak clearly. So sometimes you're going to have to come up to me after the sermon and be like, what were you talking about? Did you even sleep last night, you know? And that's okay. That's all right. You know, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But look, the point that I'm trying to make here is if you're going to get better at doing your tasks, you've got to have a clear understanding of what's being asked of you, a clear understanding of the expectations, right? I've got a boss that sometimes doesn't always communicate correctly. He's like, hey, you know, do this. And it's like, what? One time I got an instruction to go install these doors. So I went and I installed the doors. That was it, just install the doors. I come back with the old ones because I figured why would I leave these in the customer's house, you know? So I go, I told you to leave those there. He's like, no, you didn't. He's like, yeah, I did. I'm not being rude. You just didn't tell me that. It's a fact. I've been following orders and instructions a lot longer than this guy has, you know, coming from the military. I know what I'm being told because I always write it down. And I was like, okay, you know, I just, okay, no problem. So I went and threw him in the dumpster. And then one of the other guys came out and said, hey, he didn't tell you to do that. I was supposed to tell you. He told me to tell you and I didn't. I forgot and I just told him that and everything's fine. So it worked out. But the point I'm trying to make is we don't always work for people. We're not always around people that can communicate clearly, right? So if somebody gives you a task, like, hey, go vacuum out here or go, you know, go clean the windows and you have questions, you're not clear. Well, what chemicals do I use? What rag do I use? What vacuum do I use? Do I vacuum the whole thing? I mean, ask questions, right? Ask questions because when you get that clarification, then you can do a better job, right? Because your goal is to follow the instructions and you can't follow them completely if you don't pay attention to the details and you don't have a clear understanding of what's being asked of you. So where did I have you turn? Fifth. All right, Proverbs chapter 12, verse one. All right, who so loveth instruction, loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish, right? A person that hates correction is stupid. Very simple. Now, you know what? Just go ahead and turn to 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10. I'm just gonna read for you two more Proverbs. Like I said, I got a ton of Proverbs for you this evening. So Proverbs 15, 33 says, the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility. Yes, humility. So before you're going to attain honor at work, before you're going to attain honor in your family, you have got to learn to follow instructions, but you've got to be humble, right? Because if you're not humble, what are you? You're full of pride. Remember what we read in Ecclesiastes chapter five about the sacrifice of fools? The people that, oh, I'm giving up my time, but I'm not listening because I'm running my mouth. I didn't come to church more ready to hear. I came to church to tell people how great I am. It's the sacrifice of fools. That's the Melvie family. And you know that's true. Proverbs 16, 22 says this, understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hateth it, but the instruction of fools is folly. So fools look at instruction as folly. I don't need that. I don't need that guy telling me what to do. I don't need that boss giving me instructions. He's an idiot. He's dumb. He's stupid. He's a jerk. Well, those things, he might be a jerk, but if he's your boss and you're not the boss, I mean, come on. Let's think about that for a second, right? He got that position for a reason. So you're better off just trying to learn what he wants, learn what he's doing, and then doing it. So understand this. Understanding is a wellspring of life. What am I trying to communicate to you here? Ask questions. Get clear understanding of the standards and the expectations that are being put forth to you, right? Same thing with the Bible. You have a question, ask, learn, understand. Your boss, ask, learn, understand. What is it that you really want? I'm not understanding part of the task that you're giving me. When you do that, the Bible says understanding is a wellspring of life. That's what's gonna help you get success, is understanding, okay? So I wanna show you now just a couple of quick stories here in the Bible about the importance of asking questions, all right? And I'm not one of these guys that's gonna tell you there's no such thing as a foolish question, because there is. We've had plenty of people come in here and ask some pretty stupid questions, especially recently. But 1 Kings 10, look at verse number one. 1 Kings 10, look at verse one. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. Look at verse two. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. Now look at verse three. And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from the king, I'm sorry, there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not. Verse four, and when the queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom and the house he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. So here's a lady, here's a woman of power that heard some stuff, wasn't clear, went to the source, got the information. And you know what? I believe that her and probably that nation at that time benefited greatly from that wisdom. I really believe that. Verse seven, howbeit I believe not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. Turn to Matthew chapter 22. Last place I'm gonna have you turn. Matthew chapter 22, why you turn to them, read for you Luke chapter two, verse 46. Why should we be asking questions? Why should we gain clarification? Well, because even the Lord Jesus Christ did this. So even when he was a child, listen to this. Luke chapter two, verse 46 says this. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. So even the Lord Jesus, you know, understood that when he was younger, he had to ask questions for clarification. You know, he's sitting around these people, these adults and remember the Bible says that they were amazed at his understanding. How did he get that way? From being humble, obviously he's God, right? But he's asking questions, he's trying to learn, he's trying to get clear standards, trying to get clear objectives, trying to understand exactly what it is that's being taught. And because of that, because of that, look at Matthew 22, look at verse 41. Look at the result, look where this will lead you. Matthew 22, look at verse 41. So here Jesus is being challenged. Look at this, it says, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, right? Because he asked questions. I mean, think about this for a second. What do detectives do? What do cops do when they wanna gain information, they wanna gain understanding? They ask questions, right? They ask questions, why is that? So that they can get to the bottom of the matter. So right here it says, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. Verse 43, he saith unto them, how then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying? The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? Now look at this here in verse 46. And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions, right? So when we understand information, when we understand our tasks, when we understand things, it really is gonna make you unstoppable. You wanna learn how to shut the critics up? Learn the Bible. You wanna learn how to be the best worker you can be? Learn your procedures. Learn your instructions. Learn these things. Ask the questions, because guess what? That's gonna make you better. And you know what? This also is gonna help your prayer life. You don't have to turn there, but in Matthew seven, verse seven, it says, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Right? So this is also gonna help your prayer life. You wanna know how to increase your prayer life? Abiding in Christ is a good place to start, obviously, right? But so is asking, and so is seeking, and so is knocking. And that's the same thing that you should do in anything. When you're being instructed on a task, like I said, if you're not clear, if you're not 100% clear on what's being asked of you, ask questions, okay? Ask the questions, because it's gonna help you gain an understanding of what's being desired of you so that you can fulfill that better, right? Same thing that we just read there between Luke chapter two and Matthew chapter 22. You could apply that to your life in any way, right? You can be the best working, you can be the best mom, best father by following instructions. Follow God's word, follow your instructions at work, you know, and it's just gonna help you increase in learning, it's gonna help the wise, which everybody in here is wise, right, it's gonna help you become wiser. And what do we learn? You should have that desire to become wiser until your latter end. You should be wiser on the last day, your last day here on earth, you should be wiser than you are today. Amen, so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for these truths in the Bible. I thank you for all these people that came to church tonight, Lord. I just pray you bless their fellowship after the service, Lord, please bless the soul winning this week and the services to come. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.