0:14 So there's a there's a verse in Psalms 116. What shall I render unto the Lord for all of his benefits? I will take I I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. So when we go back to the Lord to 0:32 thank for what he has done and we lift up our cup and he gives us more. That's uh I trust that is your experience and that's my experience too. When the 10 lepers were healed, one of them came back to thank the Lord and he got not 0:48 just a physical healing but a spiritual healing also. when we go back to the Lord and thank him, he always gives us more. We can lift up the cup of salvation and say, "Give me more Lord." And same thing happened to me um 1:01 recently as I was sharing 3 weeks ago on the book of Song of Solomon. Uh I was so blessed by meditating that book. Uh and it really helped me to deepen my devotion to the Lord. And as I was thinking of it and 1:17 thanking God and he gave me more and uh he's so good he's so generous and today uh I want to take the next 20 30 minutes to share a few more things that I have learned that the Lord has given to me uh precious truths from this uh wonderful 1:36 book the best song ever the song of the songs right um so there's so much in it and I want to just share a few things that the Lord has impressed rest upon my heart. Uh I hope uh it will bless you too. Before that I'll start my timer 1:51 just to keep me on track. Um so first I want to start with uh three warnings that I have seen in this book. Um I think as we walk with the lord in our spiritual life uh we go through various experiences and some of 2:09 them we could relate uh what is shared in this book. The first one is uh Song of Solomon chapter 2:15. Chapter 2:15. The verse says, "Catch the foxes for us. The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards while our 2:27 vineyards are in blossom." There are some little foxes. They are ruining the vineyards. And when the vineyards are in blossom, they are like tender. They're about uh to be uh thickened and they're like in the stage where this blossom is there 2:46 and then this little foxes are ruining that wineard and we can easily imagine if it is a big fox, it's very easy to go after it and take it out, right? It's easy to protect. But these small little foxes, little foxes that are that are 3:01 ruining just like the rabbits or squirrels ruining our little gardens that we plant um these tender grapes uh represent the life and growth that we have as as a believer we grow. Um but something can impact something something 3:18 in our lives can ruin that fruit that we are bringing to the Lord. One of the thing as I was meditating I thought one thing at least couple of things um there's subtle pride that comes in our lives because of the progress we made uh 3:32 because of the fruit we are bringing because the lord has blessed what our work our ministry or what what we are doing the subtle pride about the spiritual progress and feeling better than others that could be one of the 3:45 little fox we may not see it clearly until we are radical about it or a little bit of self-righteousness I am better than others Um or it could be a bitterness in our hearts that we are harboring. Bible says let there be no root of bitterness 4:00 springing up troubling you. And there is a verse also for husbands. It says actually husbands love your wives. Be not bitter against it. I don't know why the Holy Spirit added that word. Uh it could be something a secret a little 4:12 bit. Maybe your wife did not do what you want exactly to do. Maybe the little bit of bitterness or that could ruin our vineyard or some discontentment in c certain area in our lives. Uh these little foxes are harder to see. But if 4:29 we are honest before the Lord, if we love the truth, if we go back to the Lord, the Lord will help us to get rid of these little foxes so that we can bear much fruit. And we all know God's it's God's will for us to bear much 4:43 fruit. And we don't want these little foxes to ruin the vineyard. And we can go back to God and it is a joint effort. Lord, show me show me where uh where I'm lacking, where these little foxes are ruining my vineyard. I want to bear much 4:57 fruit for you. Um so that I can I can uh my life is pleasing to you. So it starts with loving the truth and going back to him and the Lord will certainly help. So that as written in John 15:8, my father is glorified by this that you bear much 5:16 fruit. Uh so that's God's will for us and he will be pleased and he will be glorified if we bring much fruit. Uh that's the first thing from uh as part of the warnings. And the second one uh this bride. So there's a in this story there 5:34 are two people who are in deep love with each other. bridegroom and a and a girl or a bride. Uh so from the bride's perspective or the girl's perspective, there are two experiences she goes through. Uh chapter 3 verse one, chapter 5:48 3:1, it says, "By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him but I found him not." So this girl or this bride had such deeper relationship with the bridegroom but this experience but she doesn't have 6:04 that fellowship now. uh the one whom she loves he's not there and and now what she does she goes up uh she I will rise now and go about the city in the streets next to us and in the broadways I will seek him whom my soul loveth so she's in 6:24 deep love so she recognized his presence is not with her and she says I sought him I found him not whenever we recognize there is a joy that is missing Bible says in his presence there is a fullness of joy. So when we see that joy 6:38 is missing definitely we lost some area of our lives we lost fellowship with the father with the with our lord and like this bride we may be seeking after him seeking and going and searching and she has an interesting experience with 6:52 watchmen in the city. The watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said did you see my the person that I love most my soul loves and the next verse I mean it doesn't look like they helped her like it's as if the watchman 7:09 did not know where whereabouts of the bride groom and but she continues this is where I was thinking like when we face obstacles when we go to people in this case the watchmen maybe these represent the leaders or maybe even the 7:24 elders maybe anyone whom we follow um sometimes they will they are helpless they are not able to help someone who are seeking who someone who's so much love of the Lord with the lord and who cannot comprehend completely what this 7:38 deeper relationship with the lord means what is the seriousness of the broken relationship or fellowship with the lord but we don't have to stop we don't have to stop when we face situations like this in this case the girl the bride 7:52 continued her search and then she finds uh in verse four, it was but a little that I passed from them. I she passed from them and she found him whom she loves. And then she held on to him and would not let him go. Now this she knows 8:09 wow how much I miss without his fellowship. Now he he's holding on to him and so that he's not letting him go. Um even uh Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. They had to go back and find him in the temple. I'm sure Mary would not leave 8:26 her h leave his hand uh when she's coming back. Um so when we go through these experiences of lack of fellowship, a broken fellowship and we go to people who are supposed to help and they cannot help, let's not stop there. Continue. I 8:41 want to continue. Sometimes there is a serious warning about the leaders in his time. He says Matthew 15:14, "Leave them alone. They are blind guides of blind people. And if a blind guide guides a blind person, both will fall into a 8:54 pit." Like we have uh we have uh in in the new covenant there's a greater blessing. Holy Spirit being our teacher. Um it says in new covenant there's a great promise, right? All shall know me from the least to the greatest. Uh 9:10 Jeremiah 31:34. All shall know me from the least of them to the greatest. from young child to an adult, everyone shall know me. That's a promise. And also the Holy Spirit is also called a spirit of truth. John chapter 16 verse 13, he Jesus says 9:30 he will guide us into all the truth. Um so when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide us into all the truth. It's almost like uh the three the magi when they wanted to see Jesus baby Jesus they followed the star and they followed the 9:45 star until the star came to see to guided them to the place where Jesus was there. Um so likewise the holy spirit will guide us to find him again. Um and this is these there is also one more promise for the in the new covenant John 10:00 1 John chapter 27. As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you. You have no need for anyone to teach you. Um I God has given us teachers, apostles, prophets and all of that. But deep within us, God holy spirit is dwelling 10:19 in us. He will be our teacher and to guide us to reach him again. I was also thinking about other incidents in in the gospel when the when the woman with the issue of blood she was trying to come to Jesus. A lot of obstacles she had to 10:33 face. The disciples were stopping and all of that but she was so desperate. She came and touched the cloak of Jesus and she was healed. Zakius this his high did not stop him from seeking the Lord and he was blessed. And if we are 10:48 sincere in following Christ we will find him. Jeremiah it says if you seek me with all of your heart you will find me right Jeremiah chapter 29:13 um and also one lesson we can also learn from him from this experience that uh 11:04 this bride had uh we cannot assume that any like we can do everything with the fellowship of the father we can do only things that god agrees with suppose we want to do certain thing and god doesn't agree we will lose his fellowship we 11:18 will go ahead and do uh but we are supposed to follow him. It's not the other way. Right? So in revelation 14:4 there are group of people Bible describes they are the people the description is these are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. So we 11:35 follow the lamb we follow the lord. Lord if we are not in agreement with him we better not do what we want and go with him. Uh so when we face obstacles, let's go beyond and um let's follow the Lord until our fellowship with him is 11:52 restored. Um even when we face people who cannot lead us, let's let let that not stop our search. Let let us be buriants to seek the truth until we find the truth. Go back to the scripture and find the truth. And again there is a 12:06 third one third warning similar experience. This is uh from chapter 4. Sorry, chapter 5. And this is another experience I think as believers we go through. Uh in this experience, if you can read it later clearly, but um the bride is 12:26 retired in the bedroom. Uh she changed, she says she changed the clothes in chapter 5:2, I sleep, but my heart w like in the dream she woke up again. God, I think for whatever reason, she woke up and she heard the voice of her 12:40 beloved. uh chapter 5:2 and he there's a knock at the door and the bridegroom is saying open to me my sister my love my door my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops in the night um 12:58 but but later on we see that she's hesitant to open the door even though she heard the knock um she she's retired for the day she's done and she changed the clothes she washed her feet Um and she's hesitant. But later on um there is 13:14 a continuous um she changes her mind. Um in verse four it says, "My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. She felt compassion. She then she wakes up and then she goes and opens the door and but 13:31 it says verse six, I opened to my beloved but by beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone." Um these are some experience. I mean I I felt like sometimes in the middle of the night we wake up we don't know why uh but sometimes God wakes us up and I know we 13:50 will be sleepy and all of that that may be a special time God wants to speak to us. Um maybe God will put a burden uh in our hearts to pray for someone. uh this this experience tells me that I must align my time with his with his time, my 14:07 calendar with his calendar. Uh it's not like I work or serve the Lord and do things that please him on my own calendar, on my own timeline. the loss is mine if I don't respond to him because we see that finally she wakes up 14:22 opens the door uh after she was moved with compassion but when she opened the door the bridegroom is gone right um that changing dress and doing our own things could be a my own priorities it could be even my ministry but sometimes 14:39 uh sometimes when when we when that takes us or takes priority over our devotion we may miss that sweet fellowship with the Lord. Uh it could be like Lord when Lord is telling us something to do or pray or do something we could respond Lord I'm done for the 14:55 day. Can we do tomorrow? But tomorrow we may not have the same experience. Um when even um in the uh in the story of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins, the bridegroom tried um they then they all slumbered and slept. They 15:11 were careless a little bit and they the loss was theirs. The wise virgins were ready. Uh we need to be alert what to listen to what God is telling at all the times. He comes at a time when we least expect him. Sometimes it can surprise 15:25 the element of laziness leading us to delay in responding. Uh prophet Samuel Samuel's story I was thinking about it when he was a little boy and he was listening. Lord you know what u he says yes Lord I'm listening. Here I am I'm 15:40 listening. uh that could be our that should be our response to being alert to what he's telling us being watchful and uh as I was thinking about this experience she had uh I thought about the verses in um in in the story of like 15:56 in the when Jesus was praying in garden of Gethsman right before he was going to the cross he takes some of his disciples and this is what he tells them then Jesus came to them to a place called Gethsemane and told his disciples, "Sit 16:11 here while I go over there and pray." And then later on it says, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, "So you men 16:30 could not keep watch with me for one hour. Keep watching and praying so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." You know I feel very sad here when the Lord was going through so much 16:43 anguish right he was like the entire weight was upon his shoulders and he was praying and he needed someone to pray with him and the disciples were sleeping and he's saying so you men could not keep which watch with me for 1 hour when 16:59 the lord wakes us up and puts a burden in our hearts to pray for someone and think about someone and uh may our response be yes lord I'm listening I will pray with you uh I will pour out my heart or intercede for others. Um again 17:13 in the same story she goes back she does one more mistake. She goes back to the same watchmen or the policemen who are keeping the watch over the city and these watchmen who are like supposed to know the whereabouts of the bridegroom. 17:27 Again they could not help in this case in some of I mean the best case in the in the previous experience they could not help. That's fine. But in the second experience, they even beat her. They wound her. Um, yeah, it's in verse 7. Chapter 5:7. 17:47 The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. It's almost like beadings. Beatings. It could be our experience too. We can when we go to 18:01 someone for help to seek a deeper devotion, we may get more of I told you or we may get more of law. We can get more of uh rules. Oh, you you should do this, you should do that. They may not understand the devotion, the love uh 18:17 this bride had. And they also take up the take off the veil. Maybe publicly humiliated her. uh maybe some of the things she had to experience because all because of her love she's going to these people for help but instead of helping 18:31 now she's wounded she was beaten by the uh watchmen uh but the thing is she did not learn the experience she did not learn the lesson from the previous experience but any obstacles let it not stop uh us from seeking the lord this is 18:47 what I learned from that um from that story and then verse 8 um from here it goes it changes. The conversation changes. Um she's saying to the daughters of Jerusalem, maybe representing uh some of the believers, um oh daughters of Jerusalem, if you 19:04 find my beloved, tell him that I'm sick of love. And they're asking her back in this conversation verse 9, chapter 5:9, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Oh fairest among women, they're saying, what's so special about your 19:20 bridegroom? what's so special about your beloved? Um that that's when the conversation starts and she goes on um explaining what's so special about the beloved with whom she's in so much deeper love. Um and she explains it so 19:38 well. This is where I was I want to focus on this message. Um there are many things in the gospel that are not plain. Uh as we meditate I mean recently we were exalted right? So meditate on the cross. you see so many deeper things 19:52 here about the love of God. Uh so some people have greater revelation because they are trying to understand it's not maybe plainly written maybe it's in between the lines the holy spirit has to open our eyes to see the truths so that 20:06 we can appreciate recently we heard about why Jesus did not take that um uh anesthesia right so called anesthesia when she he was offered on the cross that could have relieved his pain but he had to do so many things he had to 20:20 forgive the people who are persecuting or putting him on the cross. He had to take care of the thief on the cross. He had to take care of uh his mom. All of that. So he did not take I mean I never saw that until recently we heard that 20:34 message. Uh there are many things like that. The moral excellence is the love of God. Love that God has shown to us. And as we go uh proceed in this chapter, we see she explains about her bridegroom. And I see that she must be 20:49 thinking about him all the time. So that's why she's able to tell all these things. It's she starts with this verse 10. My beloved is white and ruddy or white uh or radiant or dazzling. I felt like represents the holiness of God. You 21:05 know it's interesting in the entire Bible we see God described as holy, holy, holy. But many times we hear we when we uh tell the gospel we tell God as love. God so loved the world. That's true. But Bible describes God as holy, 21:22 holy, holy. Three times repetition, the emphasis is given. This is in Isaiah 6:3. When Isaiah had this vision um about God's holiness again in Exodus 15:1, who is like among among the God's Lord, who is like you meistic in 21:39 holiness? It starts with holiness. Without understanding the holiness of God, we can never understand the love of God completely. uh the Habacook book that we uh just meditated on um brother Kalyan beautifully explained that verse there's 21:52 another verse in Habacook chapter 1 verse 13 it says his eyes are too pure to behold evil his eyes are too pure to behold evil that's the purity we are talking about and he's not only white 22:10 but he's also ready represents red or blood god showed his love to us He's both holy and he's is also loving. How did he show the love? He paid the penalty for our sins. He poured his blood on the cross for us. Right? In if 22:27 you see in garden of Gethsemane and going back to the same um he was praying and the he was battling the battle we think that he was on the cross he was suffering. Actually the main thing was the battle was on his knees on in the 22:40 garden of Gethsmani. He had his will and father's will and he did the will of the father and his sweat turned into blood. That was his experience in agony. Luke chapter 22:44 and being in agony he was praying very fervently and his sweat became like 22:56 drops of blood falling down upon the ground. And Jesus had to drink the cup of the wrath of God for you and for me. And this is the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgi forgiveness of sins. So 23:10 Jesus not only God God is not only holy, he's also loving and he showed his love by going to the cross for our sake and pouring out his blood. Um maybe uh so we need to have that perfect understanding of the balance of God, goodness and 23:25 severity, grace and truth. He's both righteous judge and also a loving father. And he also says he she says that he's chiefest among 10,000. He stands out of many people. There are many gods in this world who claim to be 23:39 gods. But there's something unique about my lord. He's so merciful, so loving. Um I studied different religions before I became a believer. There's so much uniqueness. There's no one who loved me like Jesus loved. And that's why when he 23:54 humbled himself to became a man, that's why God exalted the name of Jesus above every other name. He is the king of the glory. Um and I cannot cover every aspect that she describes here but there are few things that we could uh meditate 24:08 on in the time uh we have um the other thing that I want to say is his the last verse verse 16 his mouth is most sweet his mouth is most sweet yeah he's altogether lovely like she describes in so many ways and she summarizes 24:27 everything he is alltogether lovely I cannot explain everything but he's altogether lovely. His mouth is sweet. I was thinking about it like we all struggle with speech um speaking the right words. When we read the gospels we 24:42 see every word Jesus spoke had a meaning had a purpose. Uh he never spoke an idol word because he himself said anyone who speaks an idol word you shall give an account before the Lord. His words are like pure words as silver tried in a 24:57 furnace on earth refined seven times. In the message I shared uh the message that brother Santo gave in the weekend of fellowship. Go and listen to it. He explains really well what are the seven filters like removing unnecessary words, 25:10 adjusting the tone, reducing the length, condensate, waiting for the right time to speak, examining the intent behind the words, ensuring that the words build up, not tear down and the speaking words that give value and a blessing to others 25:25 and not gossiping, not condemnation. Even never spoke evil of Judas even though he knew that Judas Judas was pilfering the money. um only the words that blessed others and the same Jesus had one of some of the harshest words 25:38 about sin and about hell. So and when we are in touch with the Lord he gives us the right words to speak. How to respond to our spouses to children let your speech your speech must always be full of grace as though seasoned with salt. 25:54 Um free from gossiping free from condemnation. Uh speech is a great indicator my dear brothers and sisters about our spiritual health. If something uh poison or something harsh unkind words are coming there is a problem 26:09 deeper in our hearts. uh we have a hope if we judge our words uh before him and seek repentance and come back to the lord and he will help us maybe I mean we all follow want to follow the lord we want to be confirmed in in the image of 26:24 Christ that's our goal and destination here his mouth is most sweet may this be our desire to our mouth being sweet um and finally he says like she says as I explained before he is altogether lovely Message Bible translates it really well. 26:42 Everything about him delights me, thrills me through and through. As we meditate more and more, uh we see the uh the attributes of Jesus. The his love the Holy Spirit reveals to us. That's what we should be talking about when we 26:57 meet. Uh you see you see the bride is taken up with him so much. He's explaining. You can go back and read the remaining verses. I could not cover everything. all about him. When we meet as brothers and sisters when we seek to 27:10 encourage one another, what are we talking about? Are we just pouring out dumping our struggles and uh all the burdens that we have? Are we in the midst of that? Can we say we have seen the goodness of God? We have seen the 27:23 love of God. Right? The end at the end people should go back home refresh because we have brought some aspect of Jesus Christ. We are bringing everything so that we can put everything together and we see the complete picture of 27:38 Christ and he's exalted in our midst. It's not just yes all of us go through struggles but in the midst of the struggles what is God teaching us? What is the glory that he's revealing us when we can share in our times of fellowship? 27:51 I trust that there would be a great blessing. There would be a greater revival among us a greater devotion and we will be challenged to go back. Lord, I want to see my brother saw that. My sister saw that. I want to see that in 28:03 my own struggles, in my own uh in the things that you are taking me through. And like this bride, I want to be taken up with you. And I want to seek you. Even if I have obstacles, even if I have uh struggles, even if there are 28:15 hindrances, I want to go beyond that. Holy Spirit, guide me to the truth. Lead me to Christ. If I ever feel dry, I I sense the lack of presence of God. Help me to go back find you. Find you Lord and I don't want to leave you. I want to 28:31 be close to you as much as I can. Um at the end it says he is my beloved and this is my friend. Oh daughters of Jerusalem. May not not everyone may understand your devotion by you know uh may the Lord help us to continue to grow 28:48 in the pure and simple devotion because there is a there is an enemy who was constantly working to take us away from that purity and simplicity of our devotion to Christ. May the Lord help us. Thank you. Thank you, sir, again for bringing us 29:19 back here. Um, one thing that stood out to me that I had not noticed before about the foxes, the warning about catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards while our vineyards are in blossom. If you look 29:34 back up, this is chapter 2 and starting in verse 10. My beloved responded and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along." So Jesus calls each one of us. And this is almost unbelievable. This is one of those 29:48 things like in the memory verse that he says that we hardly believe it that the Lord would look at us and call us beautiful. But that's how he sees us as we've come to him and we've been washed and cleansed. And he says, "Come along 29:59 with me." He says, ' For, behold, the winter has passed. The rain is over and gone. And it sounds like everything's going to be good from here on out. It's going to be okay. The winter's gone. The rain stopped. It's going to be awesome. 30:10 Everything's going to be nice and easy. The flowers have already appeared in the land. The time has arrived for pruning the vines. So, it's there's time of fruit. And the voice of the turtle dove has been heard in our land. You know, 30:21 it's springtime. The the flowers are starting to come out. You hear the different birds. It's just refreshing. The cold weather is leaving us. It's going to be nice out. And verse 13, the fig tree has ripened its figs. There's 30:31 fruit and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. So I thought about that with these foxes that can spoil the vines. And if you think about animals, they go to where there's life. They go to where there's food. And 30:45 you don't often have animals flocking to an area where there's just complete barrenness and rocks and nothing to eat. They go where there's fruit and there's life and where they can be sustained. And if we look at these foxes as the 30:57 enemy, as sin or Satan or whatever the world, these foxes come to the vineyard because there's flowers, because there's this fragrance, the fragrance that is good. We want that fragrance. But as Jesus said, I want you to bear fruit and 31:12 I'll prune, I'll purge that fruit so you can bear more fruit. And it just encouraged me that we have this invitation from Jesus to come along. The winter is over. The rain has stopped, but let us not get this delusion that 31:24 things are going to be smooth. to sailing and easy and carefree as we've heard about trials already a lot today and every week. We need to be reminded because we we want I think all of us we we still with every trial we long for 31:35 relief from the trial but that the fruit can come in the trial and with the fruit will come these little foxes. But it's encouraging to see even as CERN pointed out the the bride or the bride's mistakes. You know, she laid in bed, 31:48 didn't want to get up, she got beaten in all these things, the bridegroom is right there. Every time the bridegroom comes back, she's still beautiful to him. He's still there for her. He still loves her. And together, they have to 32:01 catch these foxes that spoil these vines. So let us and the Lord help us as we go with him as we accept his invitation to walk with him and but not expect smooth sailing and not expect that there won't be foxes trying to come 32:14 in and it may look different in my life today than it might look in a year from now. And same all of us these little foxes that spoil the vine that want to nip out the flowers so the grapes can't grow so there's the fruit goes away. All 32:25 these little things that Satan would want to use the world and our flesh longs for all these things to to destroy the fruit that the Lord's working in our lives. And so he's doing it. He loves us. We're his. He's we're beautiful to 32:36 him. And he says, "Come with me. And we can believe that if he invites us to come, he will be with us each step of the way, even however hard these things may be that we go through." So thank you. 32:56 Thank Jared for sharing. Um, if I could sum up, summarize what we heard this morning, um, in my mind, I would summarize it as do not delay in his love. 33:13 We talked about the little foxes that catch um, the ruin our vineyards. There's a time involved. It could be pride. If God is pointing out pride or bitterness as the foxes 33:32 that are gnawing at our spiritual growth, um then he's telling us now repent, restore the fellowship which first was Jesus and reconcile with those who may have wronged or may have been 33:50 wronged. Number two, do not delay. Um in Song of Psalm chapter 3:2 when he calls he knocks on our hearts we have a tendency to ignore or 34:07 go about our day with our busyness. But again um it says in verse two, I must arise now and go about the city and the streets and squares. I must seek him. As you seek him, that at a time that's convenient for me, you may not 34:24 find him. So always be ready. Do not delay. Number three, chapter 5:2, Song of Psalms, we will be inconvenience. That's what I take away. But at the time of being inconvenience, can I be respond? 34:44 Can I be prompt in when the Lord's calls? I was asleep, but my heart was awake. A voice my beloved was knocking open to me. My sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. When I hear that subtle voice of 35:00 God knocking in my heart, can I get up even though I'm sleepy and tired and inconvenient? If he asked me to say I'm sorry, apologize, can I do that? If he if the Lord asked me to help someone 35:18 when I'm so busy, can I do that? Um, these are all challenging words this morning. Um, now the reason we have to go back to the what's the underlying reason why we have to do this to not play and the end of the message was that 35:36 the value do I see? I think that was a big test for me. Do I see God as this loving husband, a loving um savior or is it just a picture or is it just an image or is it just a concept theory? Or do I actually when someone 35:55 asks me when I poke me about talk to me about Jesus, can I say the admiration as the bride showed in Psalm Solomon's chapter 5? Oh, he's like this my beloved. Or as they say, oh, he's my uh or just say he's a character in the 36:12 Bible. He's real. I could do the factual things, historical things, but do I have that gushing out love? And that is only you can answer personally. Do I have that? Then I can obey all these commands. So that's a challenge that for 36:29 us this morning. If we're asleep, let's arise. If I don't have that admiration for Jesus, then I must look at my foundation. Well, how do I look at Jesus, my savior? Is he just a 36:46 theoretical figure or is he really a person that I long for and I was seek him? In Luke 12:35 says, "Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. Is my lamp burning? Is my love? Was it just once when I was first saved? Today 37:05 is the day. Let's soften our hearts. God is knocking our hearts this morning. Again, let's refresh our love for him as we go to him today. Let's go to prayer. Our father, we thank you this morning for reminding 37:23 us first how much you loved us. We were so insecure. We're lost. Yet you're the one who chose us. You're the one who called us, Lord. And you loved us to the point where you shed your life for us. And thank you for reminding all those 37:42 things that you done for us. Lord, um when you call, Lord, let us not delay. Thank you for that promise that you will be alongside with us to catch the foxes. And um and when you call, our hearts tug in our hearts. Let us be quick to 37:59 repent, to reconcile, and to uh go back to you, Lord. Thank you for reminding us all these things. May it be true in our lives. Pray in Jesus name. Amen.
