Well, good evening. Could you open your Bibles to II Timothy chapter 4, that's where we're going to read out of tonight. We're beginning a new series of studies that I am calling "Rediscovering Our Foundations."

Tonight I want to take you back in time to over 1600 years ago. It was a time when the church was dealing with issues of faith, what they believed exactly. It was a time of struggle as the new emperor Constantine heard about all of the different factions that were within the Christian church, all the way from Constantinople to Alexandria, Egypt. The struggles were about what exactly do we believe in? What is considered Christian belief? The nature of God? The character of Christ? The idea of a trinity which was so hard for so many to grasp. And so they discussed these issues and sometimes discussed t hem very vehemently.

Down in Alexandria, Egypt the pastor of one of the churches by the name of Arias disputed his bishop by the name of Alexander as to the character and nature of Jesus Christ. Arias contended that Jesus was not God, that Jesus was created by God, that he had a definite beginning, he did not pre-exist, he did not know all things, he was not omnipotent. This created a huge argument that eventuated in a council in 325 AD called the Council of Nicea. Three hundred leaders from the Christian church convened in Asia Minor at the town of Nicea. Arias was brought in, he didn't relent, he stayed at his position that Christ was not God, etcetera, and those three hundred leaders promptly denounced his position as being blasphemy. And they wrote a creed that did then and still now reflects the essentials of the historic Christian gospel. It is known as the Creed of Nicea, some of you will be familiar with it. It reads: "We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten by the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the virgin Mary and was made man. Four our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried, and on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholid can apostolic church (Catholic in those days meant universal. It doesn't have the same connotation as it does today.) We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."

Now I wonder how we would have fared 1600 years ago in that situation when these doctrines were being debated and disputed. I wonder if we would have enough discernment to say, "I know what is right and what is wrong." Or if we would slough it off and say, "Aw, who cares about doctrine. That's so technical. Let's just have a big group hug and we'll love each other and this stuff doesn't matter."

Bill Bennett has noted from time to time that American is dumbing down. He calls it "the Dumbing Down of America," that we're becoming less literate, less knowledgeable; that a hundred years ago that the kids that were our kids age knew so much more, etcetra. And I think he's right but what concerns me even more than that is the church has become biblically illiterate. George Gallup in one of his polls has noted that four out of ten Americans, only four out of ten Americans, know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Most Americans cannot name the four gospels. Three out of ten teenagers know why Easter is celebrated. George Barna who does Christian polling said three in four Americans and nearly have of all born-again Christians believe the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves. He goes on to say that a similar number, that is half of Christians taken in this poll, deny the existence of the Holy Spirit and Satan.

I have a sampling of some answers on college exams as to what certain students believed about the Bible. Very interesting. Here's some of the answers that were given at a college level. "Moses went to Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments. The first commandment is thou shalt humor thy father and mother. Moses died before he ever reached Canada (rather than Canaan), Joshua led the Hebrews in the Battle of Geritol (not Jericho). The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him. And Solomon, one of David's sons had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines." No joke.

Tonight I take you to II Timothy chapter 4 as we begin this series. He says, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give me on that day and not only me but also to all who have loved his appearing."

Tonight I want to begin where I think Paul begins in this fourth chapter that he writes to young Timothy who is a pastor in Asia Minor, probably Ephesus. And that is a concern for knowing the truth. If Paul wanted Timothy to preach the Word it's because Paul wanted the congregation that Timothy preached to to know the word, to know the truth. Now Jude, you may remember, wrote something very similar. In his little epistle verse 3 he said, "Contend earnestly for the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints." A better translation might be, "Put up a good fight and a defense for the faith, the faith, once for all delivered." What is the faith? What is the truth? The faith and the truth are found in this little phrase in verse 1, the word. Preach the word." He didn't say "Timothy, preach your own opinion. Preach what the committees of the church have agreed on." He said, "Preach the word." Now I cannot speak for everyone here tonight as to what you believe. I frankly don't know what you believe, unless I know you personally I don't know what you believe. I can't say what we believe. And frequently people will come u0p with this question, "I want to know what Calvary teaches." That's an irrelevant question. The issue is what the Bible declares God to be and what the Bible declares Jesus to be and what the Bible declares the Holy Spirit to be and what the Bible declares the church to be (applause) and what the Bible declares heaven and hell to be. So I can't speak for all of Calvary. I can only speak for what I see by God's grace as what the Bible declares.

Now there's a word in this section we read, it's the word doctrine. Can you find it? In verse 3 is one of the appearings, "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." There's a lot of people that hate that word. It's a good word, I don't know why they hate it so much. But it's just a word that means instruction or teaching. Dedoskleia, doctrine. It's actually the same word in verse 1 where he says, "Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering, and doctine" as the old King James, here it says teaching. Look back in verse 16 of chapter 2, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that the man of God (and I'll add and the women of God, that the man and woman of God) may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." And though that is true, though this a great word and a great concept, there are people who still in the church of Christ have such work sentiments like "Who cares about doctrine? That stuffy technical stuff. That's so irrelevant. That's really not the issue. When Paul says it is the issue. You know wort of like when you buy a gadget, you know what comes with a gadget? It's called a manual. Now I don't know if you're like me but I hate manuals because sometimes the manuals are bigger than the gadget. You might have a laptop that's that thick and a manual that's that thick. And I think, "I don't want to read through this thing." For Christmas my wife got me this really cool coffee maker, it came with a manual and a video. So I thought, "I may be in trouble here." And I thought, "I'll plug it in, I can figure this thing out." I couldn't. Do I had a manual and a video, which do you think I went for? The video, that's our culture man. So I plugged it in, watched the video, thought, "I have it wired," tried to do it, couldn't figure it out. I had to go back to the manual.

And that's my concern tonight, my concern is that the manual of truth is more and more being disregarded by the church of Jesus Christ on this earth. You know there are some people who believe and actually teach, preach, that what you feel is more important than what you know. As long as you feel good about it, who cares the knowledge stuff, the doctrine stuff. What you feel is more important than what you know. And so you have a generation of people that are long on zeal and short on facts. Very enthusiastic, but they're hazy when it comes to scriptural truth.

However, I remind you what God said to the prophet Hosea, chapter 4, the prophet says, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." In Acts chapter 4, "they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine." In I Timothy chapter 4, Paul says, "Until I come give attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. In Titus chapter 2, verse 1, Paul said, "Teach what is in accord with sound doctrine."

I don't know, do you think doctrine's important? Given what the Bible says itself, is it important? It is essential. It is far more than important.

James Montgomery Boyce wrote, "We do not have a strong church today nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge. Ask an average Christian to talk about God. And after getting past the expected answers, you will find that his God is a little god, a vascillating sentiments."

When it comes to this stuff, ignorance is not bliss. It's dangerous. It's essential to know the truth. You know there were four occasions, I counted them this week, where Jesus rebuked religious leaders for not knowing what the book says. Four different times he asked them, "Have you not read what Moses said?" "Did you not read this and that?" Four times.

So I wonder if the Lord might ask us that same question in situations where we're plagued with, "What do we do about that?" "Haven't you read?" "What do I do about this relationship? Well, haven't you read?" It's in the book. Or the times Paul wrote to the church and said, "Now brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant concerning the coming of the Lord." Or, "Brethren, I write these things so that you won't be ignorant about spiritual gifts." I've always found it fascinating that the tweo things Paul specifically said we shouldn't be ignorant about, the church is most ignorant aobut: the coming of Christ and spiritual gifts.

Now, as a pastor, I want to echo the words of Paul, "I don't want you and myself to be ignorant concerning spiritual truth." My heart's desire is that you will be the best-fed congregation as well as the best-loved congregation in this state. And that's why we plow through the Bible like we do, That's why we give attention to language and background and context and the sense of a word all though the Bible. That's what Wednesday nights are all about, line on line, verse by verse, line upon line, the Old Testament as well as the New.

In the year 1636, which was sixteen years after our Pilgrim forefathers landed on Plymouth Rock, they erected a school of higher learning. They named it after a young minister, a pastor by the name of John Harvard. And yes, that is the university that bore his name, Harvard University. Now they built this school after they built homes and churches, places of worship. They wanted to construct a school for this intention, they wrote, "Dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." Harvard University was erected so that ministers wouldn't be spiritually illiterate in order that their congregations wouldn't be spiritually illiterate. I'll tell you what if I have a legacy, that's the one I want. I want to leave a group of people who are spiritually literate, who love and know and do the truth. That's what John said, "I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the truth."

I need to ask before we move on, how do you are, how do you do when you're in a situation that requires Bible knowledge? I'm not asking you, "Are you Theodore Theologian?" That's not the issue. But in an issue when spiritual stuff is brought up in the conversation and all eyes are on you, I wonder what you answer. When somebody attacks the Bible and they say, "It's just another man-written book, it's not inspired by God." I wonder if you can defend a biblical position. Or, when there's a knock on the door and the cultist walks up (Or bicycles up, whatever) if you can adequately defend the deity of Christ. So that's the concern, the concern for knowing the truth. Preach the Word. Of course the concern is so the congregation would know it.

Now I want to look at the next couple of verses which really deal with the consequences of neglecting the truth. And I think this has special application today. He says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will keep up for themselves teachers. They will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables." Now what is he referring to? He's referring to a timme, whatever time that is, certainly I think we're in it, when people will say no to God's truth. They'll turn away from hearing the doctrines that are in the scripture, the truth that is in the Bible. They'll turn away from it, they want something more palatable, easier. It's the doctrine of chapter 3, verse 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of god and profitable for doctrine." That's what he has in mind, people will turn away from the truth, the doctrine that is in the Bible. Is that possible? Now we know it is because it's all around us today. Places of worship, churches, denominations that were at one time founded by godly Bible-believing people have, many of them, turned way from sound doctrine.

McCall's magazine ran a survey where they surveyed three thousand Protestant ministries. They said, "A considerable number of these rejected altogether the idea of a personal God. God," they said, "was the ground of being, the force (very Star Wars-ish in their theology) the force of life, the principle of love." Fifty-six percent of these ministries rejected the virgin birth. Seventy-one percent rejected the idea of life after death. Fifty-four percent rejected the bodily resurrection of Christ, ninety-eight percent rejected that there would be a personal return of Jesus Christ to this earth." That's the state of the church. "The time will come, young Timothy, you preach the word because there's coming a time when people won't put up with sound doctrine." Sound doctrine means healthy doctrine. The Greek word is hugiano, we get the word hygienic from it, clean. It's clean, it's healthy, it's sound.

Now why, why would people turn away from healthy sound doctrine? You know why? Think about it, it's prettey easy to figure out: because sound doctrine rebukes their ungodliness. That's why. Jesus said, "Men loved darkness rather than light." Why? Because their deed were evil. "Neither would they come to the light lest their deed should be exposed." Wo, anybody who lives contrary to sound doctrine will hate Bible teaching, will hate doctrinal preaching, they'll resist it.

But there are grave consequences to turning away from the truth. Because you know whenever you turn away from 'the truth' of 'the word' of God; you are now open up to any lie. And anytime you turn away from the truth there' always somebody waiting there to hand you a bill of goods, to give you a substitute. Paul the apostle in Ephesians chapter 4 wrote that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in cunning craftiness in which they lie in wait to deceive." What a picture, people waiting for those to turn away from the truth, to fill you with all sorts of new ideas that are contrary to sound doctrine.

There's a story about a farmer who just got tired of paying the high price for oats to feed his mules. Do he took oats and he substituted into the oats, mixed it, and eventually put more sawdust than oats, and eventually all sawdust. By the time the mule at the sawdust to be completely satisfied, it was dead. And that happens spiritually. When you reject the nourishment of truth from the word of God and feed on error, though you might not see itt right away, it's slow as it creeps in, especially when it deals with essential historic doctrine, you'll die spiritually, it'll kill you. I have thought this week as I do now of Christians who once read their Bibles all the time, were in love with God, they opened it daily, thye when to bed with it. And now their appetite has been replaced with apathy. I thought this week about churches as I mentioned, who once were evangelical churches, teaching and preaching the bible. Now they loathe it. They don't include it, except maybe a little homily of a minute or two. And the rest is the opeinion of man.

Many won't endure sound doctrine today, in fact I've discovered something just as a speaker to groups all over the world, you know we as human beings have a built-in resistance to the truth. I think in an average church if you were to cut the sermon way way way down and just put more stuff and other musica nd announcements even and plays, people would say, "That's all right." Or if you were to take out an expositional preaching and substitute Words From the Lord, prophecies, people would go, "that's fine." But if you were to reverse that and put sound expositional preaching and outweigh everything else in the service, and cut back on the songs, you would have a furor. People wouldn't go for it.

I talked to a pastor a couple years ago who was asked to leave his church by his elders because he preached too long. I said, "you've got to be kidding, how long do you go? A couple hours?" He goes, "No, I went over twenty minutes. And because I went over twenty minutes, they said, 'You're preaching too long." What would his Board do in my church?

In Jeremiah chapter 5, "the Lord says an astonishing and horrible thing as been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely. The priests rule by their own power and my people love to have it so." People love to have the false prophecies take over the truth. My people love it when people make stuff up. They love it.

Years ago, when Nathan was much younger than he is now (he's driving now so please pray not only for my driving but his) I remember we sat down at the dinner table and we had a meal prepared and it was asparagus. Now I love asparagus. He hated asparagus, he loathed it. But he had his eye on the muffins and the jam that were on there. And so he'd load his plate up with muffins and jam and put like a little broken asparagus tip on the plate. Now as much as I love muffins and jam, to eat all muffins and jam isn't a balanced diet. And today I think there are many Christians who will not endure sound asparagus if you know what I mean where you get the nutrition, the nutrients, the fiber, the life-giving elements; they go for the muffins and the jam only. I hope that you will develop an appetite for the truth. And this is what I mean by that: for the whole truth, nothing but the truth (so help you God). For all of the Bible, for the whole counsel of God, not just a late night psalm or an early morning snack in a Proverb; but the entire Bible. I pray that you'll become like Jeremiah who said, "Your words were found and I did eat them and they were the joy and the rejoicing of my heart."

Another poll that I found suggests that only twenty-five percent of born-again Christians read their Bibles every day. Listen to that again, twenty-five percent of born-again Christians. These are the kind that will vocally say, "I'm born again. I'm not just a Christian, I'm born again." And I salute that but only twenty-five percent of that group say they read their Bible every day. Fifty-seven percent don't read it other than at church. Thirty-two percent find it too difficult to understand. Some don't even bring it to church. Love the word, don't neglect it.

And then, that's just the first step, isn't it? Because once we know it and we love it, then we've got to do it. "Be doers of the word, not hearers only," like James said, "lest you be deceived." So when I say I pray that you'll get an appetite for the truth, for the word of God, it's more than just, "Give me a good sermon, preacher."

In the book of Ezekiel, God says through that prophet, "They come to you (that is, you Ezekiel) as people do and they sit before you as my people. And they hear your words but they do not do them. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice. For they hear your words but they do not do them." Evidently Ezekiel was a captivating prophet, an orator. And people loved to listen to Ezekiel give a sermon. And God says, "That's a problem. It ends at the door. They love the oratory of you Ezekiel but they don't go and obey what they have heard." I pray for your appetite for the word would be an obedient appetite.

Third, and we'll close with this, the calling to nurture the truth. Now look in verse 5, after saying what he just said, there's a word of contrast, "But you." "But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time of my death (really his departure) is at hand." This, by the way, was his final work. "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." "Timothy, I'm going to be dead soon, young man, and there is a danger in neglecting the truth. But you Timothy in contrast to those who will not endure sound doctrine, you on the other hand young man, are to hold fast to it, to nurture it, to feed on it; because you'll be able to endure affliction by it, you'll be able to become all that God has in store for your life." And then Paul, really in verse 6 and 7 and 8, uses himself as an example, "I have fulfilled my role in life, I have finished the race. All because I have kept the faith. I've been able to endure all that bad stuff and look in the face of death to the future with joy, because I've kept the faith." So that's our calling. Our calling is to know the truth, to believe the truth, to love the truth, and to speak the truth; that's the calling of the church.

And there are benefits to it. I want to just sort of close this introductory message tonight, giving you briefly the benefits of loving and believing and nurturing the truth. The first one is pretty obvious, we all know: salvation. The first benefit is that it brings salvation. When you first heard the gospel, something inside of you said, "Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you need to do something. Yeah, you need to receive Christ right now." And you did. And you know what? You're different. You got changed. It changed your mind, your attitude, your behavior. You saw that change. Others saw the change in you. The power of the gospel to transform a life and cause repentance and bring salvation. I Peter chapter 1, verse 23, "Having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever."

Number two, it brings joy. It brings joy. Truth is not boring. I know some theologians work hard at making it boring. But it is not boring. If we get out of the way and let the truth be the truth, it's exciting. You will know the truth and the truth will make you boring? No, "the truth will set you free," said Jesus. Jeremiah once again said, "Your words were found and I did eat them and they were the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." The longest Psalm ever written, Psalm 119, David repeatedly talks about the joy that God's truth, God's commandments, God's precepts gives him. In Psalm 19 he writes, "The statutes of the Lord are right, they rejoice the heart." What about those two guys on the road to Emmaus when Jesus came up to them and started talking to them? After he left, he said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us along the way and opened to us the scripture?" Joy. Salvation, joy.

Third benefit, direction. As you and I listen to the truth of God, whether in quiet time or in a message, week by week, day by day, as we listen to it, as we assimilate it, as we apply it, as we do it, it begins to form a grid through which we filter every single experience. A worldview, a lens, so that we see clearly the world around us. And it gives us direction for our lives.

The third Proverb, wome of you know it well, at least the last part of what I'm going to read, not the first part perhaps but Solomon says, "Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind to them, mercy and truth, bind them around your neck, wear them as a tablet of your heart, trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." We often quote only that neglecting to see the context is those who love God's truth and bind it around their hearts, that's how you get direction. I am still amazed at how discipleship takes place whenever the Bible is taught. Just the direction that people get. Just, you go through the Bible, you teach it. Even without a discipleship group or one-on-one mentoring, just the impact of going through the Bible, to disciple a Christian, is powerful.

Number four, it promotes victory in spiritual battles. You have an edge when you know the Bible, when you know the truth. Why? Because you know Satan's strategies, you're aware of them, you won't be victimized by your feelings when you're being tempted. You'll know what to do with that. Paul spoke about spiritual warfare and the armor, and he said, "Put upon you the belt of truth. Gird yourself or wrap yourself around with the belt of truth."

I wanted to read this to you: it's Psalm 91 verse 4, I found it, it's so potent. It says, "The Lord will shield you with his wings. He will shelter you with his feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection." God's truth, his promises are your armor and protection. I think Jesus believed that, don't you? What did he do when Satan attacked him? He didn't say, "Well you know I think..." He said, "It is written." Right? He quoted scripture.

Number five, it will enhance your growth. It will enhance your growth. You will become as you love, know, believe and speak the truth; spiritually mature. You've heard the old saying, "You are what you eat." It's true, even spiritually. If your diet is spiritual junk food, all you're eating is the world's media and the world's values, you will reflect that. You will be weak and anemic as a Christian. If, on the other hand, your diet is spiritual truth, it'll impact the way you live. That will reflect as well. You will become like what you hear. That's why in John 17 Jesus prayed, "Lord, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth." That's why Peter wrote, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grown thereby." That's how you grown spiritually, by the truth of the word of God.

Having said that, I want to close with a letter that was written to a newspaper, called The British Weekly years ago by a guy who, like many, don't really care much for Bible truth or sermons and church. He'd probably just rather have a church where it's all "Thus sayeth the Lord," a few dances, a lot of music, hip hop and you're out. And so he writes the newspaper: "Dear Sirs, I have noticed that ministers seem to set a great deal of importance on their sermons and spend a great deal of time in preparing them. I have been attending services quite regularly for the past thirty years and during that time, if I estimate correctly, I have listened to no less than three thousand sermons. But to my consternation, I discover that I cannot remember a single one of them. And so I wonder if a minister's time might more profitably spent on something else. Sincerely." Well, this was printed, others wrote in response for weeks. Some got angry, some agreed. Finally this letter was sent that ended the debate. "My dear sir, (in response to the first guy's letter) I have been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals, mostly of my wife's cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet I have received nourishment from every one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them I would have starved to death long ago. Sincerely,..." The issue isn't can you remember the three points and the poem; the issues is does that truth add to your grid and are you doing something with that truth in order to make that happen? I'll give you some practical suggestions: I would encourage either taking notes on the back of this, that's what lines are for, rather than, "Here's my phone number." To actually take notes, to have a notebook. Then I would encourage that you look up the references that are spoken in the message, actually read them on your own. And then apply them to your life, like taking the questions that are on the bottom of the outline and actually applying that through the week. That's how you'll grow. And that's the reason some grow fast and some grow slow because some have a real hunger and an appetite and others do not. Study to show yourself approved to God, as we get back to the foundations.

Heavenly Father, of all of the ages that have ever existed on earth, of all of the countries that are on earth, it is this age and this country that have been most blessed with resources. There are more churches, there are more Bible bookstores, there are more teaching tapes and sermons and so readily available. So readily available. Which means to whom much has been given, much shall be required. It would only make sense that we would be the strongest spiritually of any other believer around. Sometimes that's true and sometimes that's not. And it's my prayer Lord, as the pastor of this fellowship, that we will give ourselves to truth, to find out what does the book say? What is the heart of God? That we will not become like so many who will not endure sound doctrine. And Lord, if we have developed itching ears, I pray they'd be undeveloped, that we would develop a strong appetite. Because the only way to know you is through your word. And the only valid experiences are those that can be substantiated by your word. So help us to know it Lord, to form that grid whereby we can look at all of life, every situation, every circumstance, and filter it through your truth to know what to do and get direction from you. In Jesus' name. Amen.