He Has Given Us All Things

Well, since Ron asked me if I
would fill in, I had no idea what I was in for. One of the things that I’ve been
taught in the past is when you select a passage to share, God
will make sure that you experience it. And the passage that I selected
has taken me on a roller coaster ride Elitches could only dream
of. I’ve been down, down, down to
high, high, high as I went through this passage. It’s been interesting
listening to the service so far, the holiness of God, also the need to review and to look
into our lives and see where we are in our faith. And I’ve
looked at this passage many times in the past and actually thought
I knew it. But God has shaken me to my core. It talks about promises, magnificent
promises. And one of them I’ve got to claim
right now is, in my weakness, his strength will be seen. The passage that we’ll consider
this morning is 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Second Peter is a book that was
written for the purpose of Asking the Saints to review where they
were Asking them to review what had been taught them Because
in the future false teachers were coming false teachers that
were very sly and crafty and would bring in heresy to the
church and Peter before he died wanted to make sure that that
these people would review what they had been taught. And one
of the things that’s really stuck out in my mind, as any of you
that have taught, know that review is crucial for retention. You need to review and review
and review. And the more you review, the
more permanent it will become in your mind. I’m only sorry
that I haven’t reviewed this more often. So let’s read this
passage. He says, Simon Peter, a bondservant
and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received the
faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God
and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you
in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his
divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His glory
and excellence. For by these He has granted to
us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you
may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world by lust, Now, for this very reason, also
applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. And in your moral excellence,
knowledge. And in your knowledge, self-control.
And in your self-control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly
kindness. And in your brotherly kindness,
love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,
they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities
is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from
his former sins. Therefore, brethren, Be all the
more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing
you. For as long as you practice these
things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance
into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
will be abundantly supplied to you.” This is a magnificent passage. As I got to thinking about it,
and some of the words that are in here, I thought, man, this
is like a symphony, a great orchestra. And God has taken each of us,
and the things that happen in our lives, and it’s like a symphony
to His praise and glory. The things that He puts in place.
It uses a word in here that is of a choreographer. And we see
that God has brought everything to bear that we need to live
a holy and righteous life. I love the way John, he wrote,
he’s picked songs about God’s holiness. And God is wanting
us to live a holy life. A holy life. And that holy life
is music to his ears. And all over the world, Every
day, these symphonies are being played unto Him. Symphonies of
triumph, symphonies of peace and joy, symphonies of anticipation,
symphonies of praise and glory and honor to Him. So we all get
to participate in this, and it’s amazing. He starts out saying,
Simon Peter, a bondservant, an apostle of Jesus Christ. A few weeks ago, when Ron was
sharing with us, Peter saying that he was a fellow elder, and
how Peter used to be pretty cocky, you know, but he was brought
to the place of being a common man with the rest of the people,
one of the fellow saints. And he says here that he’s a
bond servant. Again, placing himself in a place
of humility. And he is an apostle. I found
it interesting in John 12, 26, where Christ is talking about
those that serve him. Those that are servants with
him. He says, if anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where
I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the
Father will honor him. If we can be found as servants,
as Peter is saying here, God will honor us. He’ll be with
us and we’ll be with him. It’s nice to know when we’re
walking in God’s will and when he lifts us up. The word receive
means to obtain by a lot. It’s kind of an unusual word.
But I believe that the reason why it said that it’s received
as by a lot is because it’s pointing to the fact that it didn’t come
by my choice. It came by the sovereign choice
and election of God. This faith is a gift. It’s not for me. You know, I
had simple faith. As a person before salvation,
you grab the switch and you hit it, and the lights come on. You
expect that. But this isn’t the kind of faith
it is. This is the faith of God. It’s a godly faith. It’s a faith
that God gave us to give us the ability to place that faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it came by His sovereign
grace. He goes on to say, those that
have received this faith are the faiths of the same kind as
the apostles, as ours. The same kind is talking about an equal or an equally valuable
or precious kind of faith. It’s a word used of foreigners
who were granted equal privileges as native-born. Peter lets them
know that there is no insider or special group that has a more
precious faith than they do. And some of the false teachers
were teaching that they had an inside edge on the faith that
they were teaching, that others were common compared to them. And Peter, who was an apostle,
says, no, we all have the same faith. In Ephesians 4, 4 through
6, it says there is one body and one spirit. Just as also
you were called to one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, through
all, and in all. Galatians 3.28 says there is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man,
there is neither male or female, for you are all one in Jesus
Christ. If we ever start thinking more
highly of ourselves than we ought, I will guarantee you this, because
I’ve experienced it many times, God will take you off at your
knees. And he’ll show you that you don’t really have a reason
to think highly of yourself, because we’re nothing without
him. We’re nothing. It’s God that
gives us everything that we’ll see in this passage. And he,
this is a day that blows me away. God could do all of this perfectly and better than anything in the
universe could bring about anything that happens. But yet, he’s a
God that allows us to participate in his sovereign plan. Can you
imagine that? Us that, we’re really nothing
without him. But he loves to see us participate
just like here. I have the privilege to share
this passage. Why? There’s so many more that
are more qualified and God could send one of his angels if he
wanted and have this prepared and presented perfectly. that God gets joy out of seeing
us grow. He gets joy out of seeing us
participate. And then he goes on to say, this
faith is by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ. And one commentator, a man named
Smith, says, it’s better to understand righteousness as the attribute
of God. Is just and holy dealing with
man? There is no respect of persons
with God in His righteousness. He bestows the same precious
faith on all those that come to Him, without distinction of
race or country. John Calvin says, he adds, through
the righteousness of God, in order that they might know that
they did not obtain the faith through their own efforts or
strength, but through God’s favor alone. I like the way William
McDonald explained this. He says it in this way. He means
that it is a precious thing for God to give this faith of equal
standing to those who believe on the Lord Jesus. Christ’s death,
burial, and resurrection provide a just basis upon which God can
show grace to sinners through faith. The debt of sin has been
fully paid And now God can justly justify the ungodly sinner who
believes on his son. Another part of this phrase that
the titles of God here, it says God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
A.T. Robertson says the use of one
article would say that one person is referred to here, namely Jesus
Christ our God and Savior. I like what Lenski had to say
in his commentary. He says, the effort to find a
reference to two persons, God and Christ, is nullified linguistically
by the use of but one article in the Greek. There is nothing
more to say. The deity of Christ stands forth
here as a mountain that no false faith can plunge into the sea. Our Lord Jesus is God. Our God
and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2, he goes on to say, grace
and peace be multiplied to you and the knowledge of God and
of Jesus our Lord. Lensky goes on to say, he says,
in connection with knowledge from our God and Lord Jesus,
God’s grace and favor and peace and harmony and tranquility are
more realized the more we get to know our Lord. How can these
blessings be multiplied? It is in the knowledge of God
and of Jesus our Lord. The better we know God, the more
we experience grace and peace. We do better by dwelling in the
secret place of the Most High than by making occasional visits.
Those who live in the sanctuary rather than in the suburbs find
the secret of peace and grace of God. Linsky then says that
it’s true and a clear knowledge that’s being spoke here. There’s
basically two main words used in the New Testament for knowledge.
The two most often words are epigonosis and gnosis. Gnosis is a faith that can be
either false or true, but epigonosis is one that emphasizes the truth
of the knowledge. And what he’s telling us is,
is that as we study the Lord Jesus Christ and know him, we
can better worship and carry out our lives in a way that brings
glory to Him. He says that we’re to worship
in truth and praise. Worship in truth. We have to
know who the Lord Jesus Christ is to worship Him correctly. And so what we need to do then
is to go to the scriptures And we practice this epigenosis. John MacArthur, I like the way
he puts this. He says, this is a strengthened
form of knowledge, implying a larger, more thorough and intimate knowledge. The Christian’s precious faith
is built on knowing the truth about God. Christianity is not
a mystical religion, but it is based on objective, historical,
revealed, rational truth from God and intended to be understood
and believed. The deeper and wider the knowledge
of the Lord, the more grace and peace are multiplied. One of
the verses in the Bible that I love is Romans 12, 1 and 2. He says, therefore I urge you,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, serving God, a holy sacrifice acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is. that which is
good and acceptable and perfect. Two words in verse two that have
always intrigued me, the first being conformed. This word was
used of actors. The actors would get up and they
would put on masks and other garb to hide who they were to
be like someone else. So they take on a false front.
And what Paul is telling us here is quit acting like the world. Quit putting on the face of the
world. That’s not who you are. We’re not to be like the world.
We shouldn’t look like the world. We shouldn’t act like the world.
The world should be able to see us and see something different.
But too often the world doesn’t know that we’re Christians. Too
often We just blend in with the world. And Paul is telling us
here, don’t do that. He says, but rather, he says,
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is a word
that we get our word metamorphosis from. And what he’s telling us
is, is as we learn about our Lord Jesus Christ, that’s our
true new nature. Christ in you, the hope and glory. Christ in you. He takes that
and he works it through our daily lives as we learn more about
him. And he transforms us into the image of Christ. So he’s
saying what we should see is this metamorphosis. not being
like the world, but we should be something else. We should
look different. We should act different. We should
speak different. We should be lights that portray
the holiness and the glory of God. What a privilege. What a privilege,
but also what a responsibility when someone does find out that
you’re a Christian. And then you walk backwards.
What a hammer upside the head. So let’s re-examine ourselves
and see. In Philippians 3.8 it says, More
than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them but rubbish that I may gain
Christ. Do you long and thirst to know
our God and Savior? Do you count all things but rubbish for the privilege and honor of
knowing more about Him? He’s not telling us that books
and other learning is not good, but when you read and when you
see other books, they should lead us to a better knowledge
of our Lord Jesus. As we look at science or math
or music or anything else and we learn of them, we see the
face of God there. And it makes them so much more
precious It just makes them so much more real when we see Christ
in them. Verse 3 says, seeing that His
divine power has granted to us some things. Ron really got big eyes there
for a minute. That’s not what he says, is it?
He says that in His divine power He is granted to us everything,
everything, everything pertaining to life and godliness. Man, I think that’s just amazing.
There’s nothing that we’re lacking, that He hasn’t given us that
we need for a life of godliness. Nothing! No excuses! He’s already given us everything
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we fail, whose fault is
it? We don’t have our eyes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. We’re not appropriating the very
things that God has given us to live a holy life. We’re too
preoccupied with other things. We’re so easily distracted. I
don’t know about you, but I am so easily distracted. Sometimes
it makes me so angry. that I’m so easily distracted because He’s given us all things.
Again the reason for review and review and focus and focus as
once again we turn our eyes upon Jesus and learn of Him. John Piper is helpful as he says
that this verse should be looked at in three parts. And here’s
the three parts that he suggests. First, the goal is that we obtain
life and we become godly people. Through the blessings of our
Lord, we can have eternal life by placing our faith in Jesus
Christ. That very faith that he gave
us, that gift the godly faith, we can have life. And he wants
us to become godly people, holy people, people that are mirrors
of his holiness, his beauty. And then he goes on and he says,
second, and listen to this, the source of this life and godliness
is the divine power. Did you hear that? God has given us divine power. His divine power can flow through
us. Not only has He given us life
and the ability to live a holy life, He gives it through divine
power by that source. So it’s there. He’s given it
to us. And then third, he says, the
mean by which this power produces life and godliness is through
knowledge of our God and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He wants us to focus on him again
and again through this passage, it keeps going back to the same
point. You want to grow? You want to live a holy life?
Where should you look? Say it! Jesus! That’s who we focus on. Jesus. In Colossians 3, 10 and 11 he
says, And put on a new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge
according to the image of the one who created him. a renewal
in which there is no distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised
or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free man,
that Christ is all in all. Ephesians 1 and 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every, here again, every, an all-inclusive word, every,
spiritual blessing and the heavenly places in who? Christ, our Lord. He’s already blessed us with
every spiritual blessing. Not a few, not some, every. He’s given us everything we need,
and he’s given us every special blessing in who? Our Lord Jesus. Romans 832 He says He did not
spare his own son, but delivered him over for us How will he not
also with him freely give us all things? God wants to bring
honor to his son God wants his son to be lifted up higher than
any and Because of that It says that He will freely give us,
again an all-inclusive word, all things. He will give us everything. He will give us everything that
we need to bring glory to His Son. And how do we bring glory
to His Son? Through a holy life. To reflect
the very nature and the beauty of his son. One commentator put it this way.
We have been called to glory and excellence in second Peter
1 3. This last reference means that
he called us by revealing to us the wonders of his person. Sol of Tarsus was called on the
road to Damascus when he saw the glory of God. Later, a disciple
testified, I looked into his face and was forever spoiled
for anything that was unlike him. And is there anything like
him? Our Lord, it spoiled this disciple
to look on anything other than the Lord Jesus and his beauty.
Do you have that kind of passion? I tell you, I went to some really
hard times this last couple weeks answering that question. Because I can’t say that I have. But, God willing, He’ll keep working
in my life and yours to appreciate and to lift up his son. Verse 4 says, for by him he has
granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that
we by them, the precious and magnificent promises, you may
become partakers of the divine nature. Partakers of the divine
nature. having escaped the corruption
that is in the world by lust. When I looked in the lexicons
for what precious means, it says it’s valued. It’s of high worth. These promises are of the most
high worth. These promises are magnificent. The word is where we get majesty. It’s where we get the word mega.
These promises are of the highest sort. They’re incredible. They have power. And where to stand on these promises. To look at these promises and
we’ll know that God wants them to happen. Because as we know
Him and we stand on His promises we get to know who He is. He’s
a faithful God. He does what He says. Always,
always, He’s totally faithful. And if we claim these promises
that apply to us, we can be assured that He will fulfill them. And
that’s why we can look and claim them with the utmost faith. Placing
our faith in His most powerful and wonderful and gracious promises included among the all things
which God’s power is given to promote life and holiness is
exceedingly great and precious promises the Word of God is estimated
that there are at least 30,000 promises in the Bible not amazing
I went there and just started counting the promises and and
first Peter and I lost count because I got distracted. I got
distracted and I started thinking, man, I want to look that one
up. I want to study that one. And I kept going off on these
little rabbit trails, learning more about the promises and thinking,
man, you’re 67 years old and you haven’t been applying all
of these. What is wrong with you? Where could your life be? John Bunyan once said, the pathway
of life is strewn so thickly with the promises of God that
it is impossible to take one step without treading on one
of them. Love this guy. I love the way
he puts things. Two things that come from placing
our faith in his precious and magnificent promises. By them,
you may become partakers of the divine nature. Number two, that
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Both of these things happen at the time of salvation. When we
place our faith in Jesus Christ, we become partakers of the divine
nature, Christ in you. The Holy Spirit indwells us.
We become partakers of that. And having escaped the corruption
that is in the world by lust, we have escaped the penalty of
this corruption, which would send us to hell for eternity,
the lake of fire. But rather, we’ll spend eternity
in glory at the foot of our Savior, learning more of Him. That’s the thing that I really
look forward to in heaven. It’s not so much the streets
that are gold like glass, or the pearly gates, or the magnificent
size of the New Jerusalem, or the angels, or anything like
that, or meeting John Bunyan. But we will have an eternity,
an eternity to learn more of our Savior. I believe that that
eternity will be filled with knowing Him and His glory. Both of these happen at the time
of salvation. However, they continue to be
manifested and enjoyed as we grow through our daily relationship
with God. For example, think of some of
the promises that relate to this life of holiness. freedom from
sin and dominion and Romans 614 grace that is sufficient second
Corinthians 129 power to obey his commands Philippians 413
victory over the devil James for seven escape when tempted
I’m sure almost all of you memorize first Corinthians 1013 forgiveness when we confess our
sins 1st John 1 9 and a response when we call Psalms 50 verse
15 he says call upon me in the day of trouble and I will rescue
you and you will honor me when we call on our Lord Jesus Christ
when we’re down where we’re in trouble, where we’re being tempted,
He rescues us. And why? So that we can honor
Him. The victory that we see in our
lives honors Him. He doesn’t honor me. I couldn’t do it without Him. These promises are supernatural. These promises bring supernatural
results in your life. and they bring glory to our Lord
the Savior. Verse 5 goes on to say, for this
very reason also, for this reason, applying all diligence in your
faith supply moral excellence in your moral excellence knowledge.
So we’re to supply in our faith this moral excellence. Because
He has given us all of these blessings in verses 3 and 4,
we need to apply all diligence to supply our faith with the
fruit that follows. Some people call them virtues,
some call them Christian characteristics. I kind of like Galatians chapter
5, the fruit of the Spirit, and these are the fruit of the Spirit
also. So he says, apply, we’re to apply these fruit in our lives. And it’s interesting in this
passage, they kind of build on each other. There’s a linkage
between each one. So diligence, according to Kittel, he goes on to say, these
originate with God. being that it is commanded by
him, he will enable the hard work required to obey. Diligence
has the idea of both urgency and hard work. It denotes the
total demeanor of the Christian, whose daily task is to ratify,
activate, and practice his calling. The word supply is interesting. It’s that word that I talked
about earlier, choreograph. God is giving us everything. And he wants us to choreograph
our growth in cooperation with him. Because this word to supply
is not a passive word. It’s not that God just takes
these Christian characteristics as fruit and drops it on us and
infuses it into us and we’re automatically holy. He requires
our participation. I have a article with me for
anyone that wants to read it about the heresy of let go and
let God. R.C. Sproul wrote about this
and it is not let go and let God but rather is take what God
has given us and he expects us to participate and to work diligently
to work as hard as you can at taking these characteristics
and adding them to your faith and as we do our faith will become
stronger and stronger and we’ll look back at the promises that
he has answered for us and they will encourage us and they will
fortify that faith and we’ll put faith where we never would
have before He fortifies that strength. So in verse 5, Linsky goes on
to say, with all diligence, to furnish in this connection with
your faith. And he calls it a golden chain
of fruit. And he says, in your faith supply
moral excellence. That spiritual courage which
is before a hostile world. Strength to stand for what is
right. Let our courage be seen and heard
as it fortifies faith. And in your moral excellence,
knowledge. This is Gnosis. He wants us to investigate and
to know the word. It emphasizes the importance
of studying the word and obeying its sacred precepts. Ignorance
of the word. False conceptions and its teaching
rob our faith of its proper praise. We’re to know what’s true, and
we’re to stand on that, and that will support our courage to stand. The next thing is in your knowledge,
self-control. To exercise complete control
over one’s desires and actions. Not as those false teachers that
teach no control is necessary, But rather, we exercise self-control
and we learn what is true. And we learn to be able to control
everything in our life to have a more excellent and holy life. And in your self-control, perseverance,
the power to withstand hardship and stress. And that perseverance
helps us exercise self-control, doesn’t it? I hope you’re not
all like me. I really have a hard time often
with self-control. Like I said, I get easily distracted. But yet God has it there. We can make it available and
we can claim that self-control. He will give us the energy. He will give us everything we
need to do such. to that self-control or perseverance,
he says, add to godliness, a devout practice for an appropriation
of the beliefs about God, being true to God. And to your godliness,
brotherly kindness, brotherly love, the affection naturally
besetting the relationship between siblings. But here he’s especially
talking about the affection of those who are siblings, and the
family of God. The godly must cling together
in support and encouragement. We have to have that fellowship.
The Christian life is not for a loner. We’re not called to
be hermits and stay away from church and sit under a tree and
say a mantra over and over. The Christian life requires fellowship. I can’t live a holy and blameless
life if I don’t have you to encourage and to build me up. And then
it says, to your brotherly kindness add love, agape, a strong affection
and regard for a person and their good as understood by God’s moral
character, especially characterized by a willing forfeiture of rights
or privileges in another’s person’s behalf. You think of anyone when
you hear that? When our Lord came down and took
on a human body, he lived a perfect life and he died for us. We are
toe love others. He says in Matthew 544, but I
say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you. Linsky in his list has arranged
these in reference to pseudo prophets that are given in chapter
2. And he says, and the way in which
they live according to their pretended faith For praise they
supply, disgrace. For knowledge, blindness. For self-control, libertinistic
license. For perseverance in good, perseverance
in evil. For godliness, ungodliness. For
fraternal friendliness, dislike of God’s children. And for genuine
love is terrible absence. What a terrible life. Verse 9,
he goes on to say, who lacks these qualities is blind and
shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his sins
and from his former life of sin. Blind, incapable of comprehending. Shortsighted, nearsighted, can’t
see the big picture, can’t look ahead. And that’s how I get sometimes. I’m so enamored and focused on
this little thing that I don’t see God working in the whole
thing. In all of our trials and tribulations, we should look
for God. And we should learn something about Him in every
one of them. Because they’re there to teach us about Himself. I like what MacArthur says. He
says, the failure to diligently pursue spiritual virtues produces
spiritual amnesia. Such a person, unable to discern
his spiritual condition, will have no confidence about his
profession and faith. He may be saved and possess the
blessings of verses 3 and 4, but without the excellencies
of verses 5 through 7, he will live in doubt and fear. always
wondering, am I a Christian? Could I really be a Christian
and not see these things in my life? And if that’s the case,
you’re not diligently working at seeing these things in your
life. Verse 11, it says, For in this
way the entrance into the heavenly kingdom of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus, will be abundantly supplied to you. There’s that word again for choreographed
supplied to you. Now, he says if we do this there’s
reward in heaven. There’s going to be a choreographed
reception for us. Can you imagine that? The God of heaven and all of
creation is going to choreograph a reception for us. I think that’s
just amazing. And he says it’s going to be
abundantly supplied. What resources does God have
at his disposal? What kind of a reception is that
going to be? I’m amazed. I’m looking forward
to that. And in the meantime, what should
we do? Learn of our Lord Jesus Christ
and be diligently at seeing the fruit of the Spirit revealed
in your life. I’ll just read one of my favorite
little songs that it always pops up to me when things bad happen,
when things great happen. And it says this, turn your eyes
upon Jesus. You know it? Are you with me?
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and
grace. I just pray that this morning
That song and what we’ve talked about will stick with you. I
hope that you go back and you read it again and again. On the
back table there, I’ve copied some excerpts from Stephen Charnock,
one of my favorites. And this is a discourse that
he gave on knowledge of our Savior and Him crucified. And I took
some excerpts from that because to even share it with you, it
took me a couple hours to read it. But I took some nuggets out
of there and copied them down for you. And also from Isaac
Watts. from Isaac Watts, and I hope
that you’ll take one of these and read them because it really
brought some conviction to my heart. And at the same time, it just lifted me up. So turn
your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the
thanes of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory
and grace. Let’s pray. Father, I do thank
you and praise you for your grace. I thank you for supplying everything
that we need for life and holiness. Father, help us to be diligent
in appropriating these things and working them out with the
Holy Spirit in our lives. Help us to stay in step with
him and to bring glory to our Lord Jesus Christ in you. In
whose name we pray, amen.