follow with me beginning at chapter 1, and we're going to begin reading there at verse 1. And the second year of Darius, the king, and the sixth month, and the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet, unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shuttael, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, Saian. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people, speaking of Judah, say, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Now then came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed, or roofed houses? And this house, that is the temple, lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. You have so much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Let's pray. Our Father, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word. We know that the time is fleeting, and so we have much to cover. We pray that not only will we leave here with an understanding of history, but more than that, an application of these truths to our own lives and to our own ministry. Lord, as we gather again, we pray, bless this church, Protect it. May we walk in your ways, we pray. In Christ's name, Amen. Let me give you a little bit of a background. Haggai is ministering in Judah after the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus in Ezra, chapter 1, verse 2, king of Persia, gave this decree. The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. That decree gave liberty to the Jews to leave Babylon where they had been in captivity 70 years and to make their way home to Judah and ultimately to the city of Jerusalem where they would build the temple. The scriptures tell us only 42,000 men accepted the challenge, 42,000 men and their families. There were many others that stayed in Babylon. Some, for 70 years as they've grown up there, they had only known Babylon. They had become, sadly, Babylonian and not. desiring to be numbered among God's people. There were some, and we know this from history, in Babylon you could be promoted, even if you were a foreigner, even one of the captivity, and you could ultimately become a leader in Babylon itself. And so there were some Jewish people that had become very successful. They were leaders in Babylon. They were financially invested there. They owned lands and possessions, people of wealth. And they chose not to go back to Judah. There were others, no doubt, that knew that the hardships would be great. Not only the great distance that would have to be traveled from Babylon up to Jerusalem, but also the reality that Jerusalem was in, it was wasted, it was destroyed, it was uninhabitable. And so to leave the conference of Babylon and go to Jerusalem was something most of the people decided they would not do. So there were only 42,000 men who were taking upon themselves the task of going back to Judah, rebuilding a nation, rebuilding a city, and building, according to the decree of Cyrus, the temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Numbered among them was Haggai. I picture in my mind Haggai being an elderly man now. Perhaps he was a boy when the captivity came and he was taken away with all the others and grew up in Babylon. But God's hand was on Haggai. And when the opportunity came to go back to Judah, Haggai accepted the call. 80 years old, his heart was set upon being in the midst of God's people. You follow in the scriptures here, this passage of scripture, and we understand as we look at Haggai that the walls of the city of Jerusalem have not yet been built. Nehemiah will arrive years later, as God had set upon His heart to rebuild the walls of that city. Haggai, he ministers to a people that have literally been living in the midst of hardships. When they arrived at Jerusalem, the walls were rubble, the homes in the city itself were burnt with fire, and the temple had been demolished. We know from the scriptures that there was a season that the people began building with zeal and enthusiasm. In fact, the Bible says in the book of Ezra when they laid the foundation that there was a celebration among God's people. At least among some. As you have your Bible here in Haggai, look with me again to chapter 1 and verse 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people, speaking of the Jewish people that had gone back to Judah and were in Jerusalem, This people say, The time is not come. The time that the Lord's house should be built. As a result of that, the building of the temple ceased. for 10 years. There was no labor on the site of the temple. And so what were the people doing all that time? Look with me again at verse 3 and 4. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, now here is Haggai's deliverance, here is God's confrontation, God's rebuke. Is it time? for you? Look again, verse 2, the time has not come. Verse 4, is it time for you, oh ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And yet this house, my house, lies waste. Verse 6, you've been sowing in your fields and yet it brings it little. You eat and you never have enough. You drink, but you're never filled. You clothe yourselves, but you're never warm, and you earn wages, but it's like the bag of money has holes in it, and the money falls out. Verse 7, And thus saith the LORD, A host, consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build a house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, the Lord says, I blew it away. Why, saith the Lord our host? Because of mine house, that it is waste. And ye run every man unto his own house. Verse 10, And therefore the heaven over you is staid from dew, that is, you're not going to have any moisture, not going to have any rain, and the earth is staid, will not have fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, that is, upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon meat, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the lands. The Lord says this, listen, you've been laboring and laboring and laboring. And it comes to nothing. You walk around with bags of money, but it's like there's holes in the bag and the money keeps falling away. You know, I believe that's true of many believers. that they're so busy working in this world, and they think if I work just a little bit harder, I'm gonna have a lot more. And I've actually had some say to me over the years, and you know, if I keep working, brother, I'm gonna have enough one day to really be a blessing. I had a man several years ago, and he said to me, Preacher, when I get my company up and off the ground, boy, oh boy, am I gonna be given the missions. And you know what, when he got his company off the ground and he became wealthy, he moved away, and I'm not going to tell you where he moved to, but he's not given a dime to missions. I'm afraid a lot of us are going to come to the end of our life and we're going to feel exactly like what is being described here. I plan it and I have nothing to show for it. I've labored but it's come to naught, and we live out our life that we seem to never, ever have enough. The work ceased for years. Let me give you two reasons it did on your outline. The first reason that the work ceased was procrastination. People just kept putting it off. They stopped working. In fact, you look back again at verse 2 when they were confronted, the people said the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. You know, as I've gotten older, I have been shocked at how fast life is moving and the years are fleeting. There are people in this auditorium this morning, bless your heart, talking about what you're going to do for the Lord one day, and you've been talking for 10 and 15 and 20 years, and you ain't done nothing yet. I'm going to teach Sunday school when I have time. You never have time. You know, I'm going to go on some of those mission trips one day, and you're going to wait until you're too old to go. I'm going to work, you know what, I'm going to be a Sunday school teacher when life slows down a little bit and it will never slow down. You are like verse 2, the time is not come. Hegeai delivered a twofold message with three words, consider Your ways. Consider your ways. Let me say this to you, mom and dad. You've been waiting for your children to get a little bit older. And then you're going to get busy being an example of serving the Lord. You said that when they were toddlers. Then you said it again when they were in elementary school. Soon, they're going to be gone. They will have never seen you serve, and then one day you're going to be asking, I wonder why my kids don't go to church? Because they never saw an enthusiasm for the things of the Lord in you. They kept putting it off. The time is not come. There's another reason, and I would ask you to take your Bible if you can. Look with me at Ezra. You're gonna go all the way back after 2 Chronicles, and you're gonna find the book of Ezra. If you would turn there, Ezra. Here's the second reason. that the building of the temple ceased. One, they kept putting it all, procrastinating. Number two, opposition. Opposition. There were, on your outline, critics within, and there were critics without. The critics within were the ones that you would have thought would have been excited that the temple was being rebuilt. I mean, after all, these are the priests of the Levites. These are the leaders of the nation. Among the 42,000 that went back, they were the ancient men. They were the elders. They were the ones that should have been most excited about the temple being rebuilt. But when we look at verse 12 here, we read these words. But many of the priests and Levites and the chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, gray-haired like I am, they had seen the first house. They were old enough, they remembered when the temple was destroyed. They remember the sorrow that laid upon their heart as they watched the city and the palaces being destroyed. And now they're watching 70 years later, and the foundation of that temple is being laid, and it's going to be rebuilt again. And the verses right before it said there was excitement, there was joy, there was celebration. But in the midst of the celebration, the ancient men wept with a loud voice. I thought about many reasons to weep. One is remembering the way it was. Wow, if you only knew what it was like 70 years ago. Wow, the temple and the gold and the silver. But more than that, they're telling the young people, if you only remembered God's presence, wow. And now look at what we're building. I could imagine some of them saying, I don't even know why we're bothering. You know what I mean? It's not even comparable to the way it was. And so there were some that were drawn to comparison and some that were complaining. The word wep there is literally loud complaints. You know, some of you have been with me over the years. We arrived in this place in 2005. not knowing what the years ahead were going to give us, years of trial with contractors and all like that. But I remember the challenge. And how many of you have ever heard the expression or ever used the expression, old Hillsdale? How many of you have ever heard that? I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing that expression. All right? But the old Hillsdale, that old crowd sometimes, they were stuck. in the past. Some of you might be that way as well. I can remember when we arrived here, Sheila and I, we replaced a youth pastor, had been here for many years. And I was told coming in the door, nobody's going to replace that youth pastor. Well, by the grace of God, 32 years later, I'm still here. It's easy to allow critics to discourage you. Another one. There were not only critics within, but there were adversaries without. I don't have time to go into this unless I take tonight's message, and I really thought about that, brother. But let me give you the adversaries without. They were subtle. and they were seditious. By being subtle, the adversaries, the enemies of God's people actually came to the city where the temple was being built and they said, we'll help you. And I love it, there's a river bell that says, you know, we don't need your help. This is the house of God and God's people are going to build the house. And so they turned away. But then they began a campaign of sedition. The first thing they did was they sent word back to Darius, listen, these people, these Jewish people, they're rebelling. And he did some exploration in some of the archives, and he found that they had permission to build that temple. And then they started to say, well, they don't have the proper permits, you know? They don't have in hand the authority to do what they're doing. But you know, they had all those things. On your outline, would you consider this? There's a danger in God's work. And when I say on your outline, it may not all be on your outline, but there's a danger in God's work. One, that we lose our focus. As a church, that we lose our focus. We begin building our lives, our fortunes, our careers, and we fail to be an active part of God's people. we lose our focus. Another is this, we become discouraged. We allow criticisms and opposition to start eating away and eroding the spirit of the church. As pastor, I'm going to be away from you at least two weeks with my shoulder. And I wanted to leave you today with a challenge from a pastor's heart. that I hope will spur you to look ahead at what God can do. Let me give you this. On your outline, there's a danger facing Hillsdale. And it's the danger that is found in every organization. In fact, it's your own personal body danger as well. Four things will happen if we're not careful. There's four life cycles. It's true of our bodies, it's true of our church, it's true of our nation. The first is this, inception and birth. When a ministry is young, it's characterized by energy and enthusiasm. a camaraderie, a shared sacrifice, a pioneer spirit, a youthful zeal that says it's us against the world. I've seen that with young pastors over the years. I've seen it with young churches. I don't know, Brother Martin, if you've seen it, but somebody starts a church and it's the place to be. You gotta be there. There's excitement there. And I'm thinking, gray head, let's see who they'll be in 10 years. in 20 years. There's always excitement at how that little one in your arm, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo, ga, ga, ga, ga, goo, goo, goo, goo, goo. Oh, look at the size of, that kid's gonna be a piano player. That's what I would say. You would say he's gonna be a, you know, he's gonna be a quarterback. But that little one grows up and it's not all the joy you thought it would be. It becomes work. That takes me to number two. There is the inception and the birth. Number two, the second life cycle is developmental. It begins to develop. The first, I like it today, I hear sometimes when people are starting the churches, and they'll say, my church is gonna be different. We're not going to fall into those traditions, you see. We're going to blaze a new trail. And I'm thinking, you know, Solomon had something to say about that. There's nothing new under the sun. But they're going to blaze a new trail. And the next thing you know, they're starting a fundraiser because they've got to buy land. And the next thing they've got to do, they've got to build a building. And then as they start doing all that, why we need a manual, policies and procedures. We need to know who, what we're doing, when we're doing it, why we're doing it. And there's that developmental stage that suddenly everything they said they weren't gonna be, now they're having to be it. Because they understand in order to be an organization, you gotta be organized. There's the developmental stage, number three. There is the mature stage. The mature stage resists change. It is a church and a ministry that has traditions, but if they're not careful, they become divorced from principles. And when somebody asks the question, why? They'll say, well, it's just the way we've always done it. I don't know why. One of the things I've tried to do over the years, I started this as a youth pastor, I don't know if any of the adults here that were teens in my youth group, I would preach every year, why we do what we do. And I would teach principles, not just here's a rule book or here are the standards, I go, why we do what we do. And as a church family, now listen to me, you need to know why Hillsdale is different. why we do the things that we do. It has got to be principle-based, because if it's not, somebody else could come in here when I'm gone one day, and I'm not going anywhere, but somebody else could come in here one day, all of a sudden they've got new ideas, and you're gonna sit there like too many churches do today, and you're just gonna go down the river, floating without any oars to give direction. You better know what you believe, you better know why you believe it, and you better know why you do what you do. That's the mature stage. There's a danger in the mature stage of what I'm gonna call complacency. This might be true of some of you. I remember years ago, old, when I was young and zealous, I would just do it. Nobody even knew what I was going to do. I would just go ahead and do it. I remember one Sunday, I got so tired of the old Hillsdale crowd, I brought a rocking chair and I put it up on the platform. Do you remember that? And I demonstrated sitting down in that rocking chair and rocking as fast as I could rock in that rocking chair. And even though I was busy, do you know how far I went? I didn't go anywhere. I'm busy rocking. But I'm not going anywhere, I'm just busy. That is the danger of a mature church. is that you become so busy that at some point you realize you're not going anywhere. You're like a truck stuck in the mud. And you're trying to get out, and you're hitting the gas pedal, and mud is flying, and there's all kinds of activity going on. But the more you go that way, the deeper you get. And you're stuck there. That's the danger of a mature church. Number four. The fourth life cycle, this is true of our bodies, our lives, it's true of a nation, it's true of a church, is decline. Now I'm preaching this message today because we are not declining. We've been blessed and we've been growing. So this is a good time to tell you what the future can be. Death will be eventual if you don't remain vibrant. Let me give you some thoughts to go with that. What happens to a church that's in decline? And some of this is not on the outline. The first is this, we lose our zeal. We lose our zeal for souls. We lose our zeal for Christ. We lose our zeal for ministering to others in the church. We lose our zeal. As your pastor, for several months now, my heart has been burdened about the need to see a revival of evangelism at this church. that we care about lost souls. I'll give you the illustration I thought of as I pondered. By the way, when I'm at home and I become dangerous, I start thinking and meditating. It's a wonderful time, as long as I'm in my right mind, which I am right now. But I thought about fishing. You know, every Sunday morning, I come here to fish. But I've been so convicted. It doesn't matter as a fisherman. It doesn't matter the quality of the rod and reel that I bring. It doesn't matter how good the, what do you call those things that you fish with? The bait or what, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how nice my boat is or how big my motor is. None of that matters if I'm fishing where there are no fish. As a church family, how do we get lost souls in here where we're fishing for Christ? Remember, we're to be fishers of men. How do we see lost souls come to Christ unless We bring them. Do you understand that? And I could ask you, and I won't, when was the last time you invited someone to church with you? We've been blessed. We have a great music program. You'd be hard put to find anywhere you could go with a better sounding choir than you heard this morning. We sing songs that are doctrinal. Christ honoring, we are traditional by conviction without any apology. I'm not, and we're not as a church trying to be like anybody else. If people came to this church, the last time they came was in the 1980s and they came here today, the only thing they would see different would be your faces. Either we're older or you weren't here. But everything else about this ministry, we haven't moved. We are, by the grace of God, who we are. We haven't gone with the others, with the drums and the guitars and all the, we are who we are. And we make no apology for it. You have also become a very warm, and friendly and loving church. I have guests tell me all the time, this is one of the most loving churches I've ever been in. But if you don't bring the loss to experience it, it doesn't matter all that we are. We have a great academy, excellent. A great fine arts music program. We have awanas and team ministry. We have all these things. But that's all they are if we're not reaching lost souls. A little bit further with this. A declining church is a maintenance church. And it depends upon programs and committees. I go to committees because we need committees for accountability. We don't need a committee to tell us what we ought to be doing. We ought to be reaching lost souls. That's what we ought to be doing, right? Here's another thought that goes with it, and this is on your outline here. A growing desperation and a danger of embracing revolutionary change and abandoning core values. Some of you were members of churches that either they're dead and gone, or they're dead, or they've been taken over by a philosophy, an ideology, that isn't even close to what that church used to be. How many of you would say, I know churches like that? Okay. They lost their way. Here's why. They become desperate. They start to change. Why are we changing? Because if we don't change, we're gonna die. And so they change their ideology, their philosophy. They move from faithfulness to God and they become pragmatic. The messages no longer declare the word of God with boldness. Now they are socially relevant. There's a shift in the pulpit ministry. The preaching of the word moves from the word of God as our sole authority for faith and practice, and we begin to preach felt needs. We want people to feel better. Brethren, we need to see them saved. and delivered from sin. Churches that go down this path often become Calvinistic churches. They lose a zeal for souls. They have no passion for missions. And you can chart that all the way across America. Thirdly, they shift in their music ministry. The music goes from Christ-centered music, where worship and doctrine is premium, to man-centered ministry, where the focus is on entertaining. And then fourthly, they die. Either they die and the doors are closed and the windows are boarded up, or they're taken over by another group that comes in and plants itself. I've known of churches across America whose buildings were bought and paid for by the saints who loved the word of God, they loved the Lord, but they died off and there was no one else to take them. And another group comes in that is heretical and they take over that building. Then let me give you some heart to heart things. Are we there yet? I used to drive bus trips and I have smart aleck teenagers in the back. I'm pulling out, we're going on like 600 mile trip and I'm hardly out of the parking lot and some smart aleck from the back says, are we there yet? And they would do it almost every hour on the hour just because they knew it. Irritated me to no end. You know, you've had your children do the same thing, right? Are we there yet? And it's just like, I'll tell you when we're there. I thought about this this week, and this is for your outline and your thoughts. We need to know two things to answer, are we there yet? The first is this, our destination. Where are we going? And then the second is our location. Where are we in our journey? Years ago, Sheila and I, we were up in the mountains somewhere, and I'm following the GPS. Those things can be dangerous, you know? And we're following this GPS, and we know the destination. We're just trying to figure out how to get there. And it says, turn right. And I look right, and it's like, that's a one-lane highway. You know, that's a one-lane street. Probably going to that farmer over in the other valley there. Do you remember that? And it was a dirt road. So I'm looking, and it's like, I don't think so. You know what was wrong with my GPS? It didn't know where I was either. I knew I didn't know, but it didn't know either. But the problem is, the GPS always has something to say. I have never had my GPS say, we're lost. Never happened. If he's got something to say, turn right, turn left. I remember recently, I don't know where we were, and I went past the driveway. I was going for a surgery. I went past the driveway, and all I knew, all I had to do is go down, turn in the driveway, and I'm, that stupid thing said you're one mile from your destination. I'm not, it was gonna take me all the way back around the block and all the way back in to the driveway that I missed. Stupid GPS. Think about this if you would. Let's talk about location. I know where we are because I know where we came from. I came here on October the 1st, 1985. And there were three generations that I have known over these last 32 years. The first generation were the charter members. There were many of them. They're almost all with the Lord today. The Ryans are still here. Brother Mark Keller. I might be leaving someone else off. Oh, Penny Jividen. But pretty much all that generation, they're gone now. And then there was the generation that had become the leaders of the church. Many of them were young people, teenagers in the youth group when I came. And then today, as I'm listening to Abby sing beside Cindy Herlocker, that's the third generation that's represented there. And so I know where we are because I know where we've come from. But another thought that goes with that is our destination. We haven't arrived yet at our destination. Heaven is our home. This world is not our home. And the sin and the wickedness that is in the world that is around us is a constant reminder. This world is not my home. The writer of Hebrews writes about Abraham. He says he sojourned in the land of promise. as in a strange country. It's always been true of God's people. Hebrews 11 and 10. Abraham, like we should, was looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11 and 13. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. This world is not our home. And we need to quit living like it is. The problem in Judah was that they had neglected the Lord and his temple. and they were farming and buying and selling and trading, and it was just a constant, never enough, never enough. And finally, the prophet says, listen, thus saith the Lord, I've stopped the rains of heaven. I've made futile your labor in the field until my house is built. the house is built people but this isn't the church you're the church and as much as we often will say among ourselves even so Lord come quickly he's not gonna come until that last soul that is to be saved turns in faith and ask Christ to be Savior. Our duty until that time is to be busy about the mission. The mission is the Great Commission. It is that we would be sole winners, that we would have a lifestyle that has central to that lifestyle, the seeing and winning of the lost. We also have an influence. We are to be the salt and the light of the world. We're not to go through life mute. We are to be bold in our faith and loving in our testimony. But we are not to be silenced about the things of God. when God gives opportunity. And I'm gonna close with some thoughts, two things I'm not willing to do, and then I'm gonna give you four thoughts so that I won't have to preach tonight and take your time. I gray-headed, and I have to have surgeries every once in a while. But I am not gonna run out the clock on this ministry. I intend to work hard and be faithful as many years as God will give me, but I cannot do it alone, neither can the staff. I have Pastor Peterman, he's wearing so many hats that some of you as church family, you could be wearing. You could be working in Awanas. You could be an Awana director. We need laymen to be overseeing the children's Sunday school. I talked to Pastor Barber this past week. I says, listen, I'm ready to see a revival when it comes to souls. I wanna see his training. I wanna see his reaching. For several years since we got here, We have been constrained financially. Not in debt, we just didn't have money to spend. You ever have that in your life? But God's been blessing through your giving. And we're gonna begin advertising. We need to, when it comes to Christmas, let's say our Christmas program, shame on us if this auditorium's not full. It should be full. Why? Because it's going to be a great ministry and a great message. Shame on us if we haven't done all that we can. So number one, I'm not willing to run out the clock. Number two, I'm not willing to rest on our accomplishments. I do not want this building to be my monument. I also don't want it to be my tombstone. And four things. We need to pray for revival. And as your pastor, that's my heart and my passion. We have experienced and we are experiencing peace, love, unity. Some of you that are visiting or you've been visiting for quite a while, You realize that this church right now, God's blessed and we don't have turmoil or trouble or fighting or bickering, we don't have any of that going on. But I know enough about Satan, he's just waiting. And I wanna be one step ahead of him, if not a whole lot more, because I want us to be in constant revival. Number two, that there would be a renewal in our midst. for the work of the ministry. Number three, that we would begin reaching our community for Christ, one soul at a time. That when it comes to services at Hillsdale, that we know whether it's pastor or one of the other pastors or Pastor Martins who's filling in, that we know when we go fishing, there's fish. And then lastly, restoration, to restore. One of the first verses I learned as a young person was 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. And the old things and the old things of the world are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There are young people outside these walls who are lost in darkness. They know nothing of God's word. They know nothing of the commands. They're growing up in a school system that openly mocks God, the creator. We are surrounded by people that understand our society is dying before our eyes. And we have a message of hope. There is an epidemic of drugs across this nation like has not been seen since the 60s. And we've got a message of hope. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All that old stuff will slowly pass away and all things can become new. I want to see a ministry here of restoration where we give lost sinners hope in Christ and in Christ alone. And I close with this invitation. Will you stand with me today and say, I will be praying about those four things. Go back to the earlier slide. That we will pray, Lord, revive us, renew us. Lord, bless our reaching out for lost souls. And Lord, restore, give us a ministry of helping others have hope. Will you do that? Let's stand and pray. Our Father, we bow before you this morning. And Lord, I pray that these dear people that have listened to this pastor understand my heart's desire is to encourage them. Lord, may we not ever have to hear the words that was heard by Judah when Haggai stood and he said, consider your ways. Lord, may that be the message of the hour for us as individuals, as families, and as believers. Lord, it's my longing and my prayer that this church will stand as a lasting testimony, vibrant and on fire. Lord, may we see the lost saved. May we see the saints edified. May we see you send out from us a generation that will become pastors and missionaries. And Lord, until you come for your church, oh, it's our prayer, oh God, that we will be faithful in Christ's name.