Well, the last Sunday night that we were together, I introduced our Sunday night series for the year, which will focus on Christ in the Old Testament. And of course, that's right there on your message guide tonight. And we're going to do this because it is what Jesus himself encourages us to do. He encouraged the people that he knew and that he had seen in the New Testament to do this. And certainly it applies to us as well. In John 5, 39, Jesus said, search the scriptures. And at that time, the scriptures were only the Old Testament scriptures. And so that's all that they had to find Christ. Search the scriptures, he said, for in them, in those scriptures, in that Old Testament, you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. So again, the Old Testament, the scriptures testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he encourages us to do that. And then Jesus also gave us his own example, didn't he? This is how he introduced our entire series. He gave us his example to search those Old Testament scriptures when even after his resurrection, he met with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. And in Luke 24, 27, it says, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Jesus expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And hopefully that kind of jogs your memory of where we were a few weeks ago. And so even though that is our goal, to find Christ in the Old Testament, we also know that we will not be able to do that. Really, we won't be able to find Christ in any of the Bible unless God himself opens our heart to that truth. We can't do it in our own. We can't do it in our own strength. And that's why we need to pray to and plead with the Lord to open our eyes, to increase our faith, to stir our hearts up for him, just like he did do for those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. You remember again from Luke 24, the Lord Jesus even caused those two men's hearts to burn within them while he talked with them by the way, as he opened to them the scriptures, the Old Testament. So once again, through his encouragement, through his example, that is why we go to the Old Testament to find Christ. And the first way that we're going to do this, the first way that we're going to seek Christ in the Old Testament is through his personal manifestations, or his personal appearances in the Old Testament. You know, we can be so grateful that God, as the creator of this universe, and as the creator of this world, and even the creator of us, he didn't just take his hands off the wheel, so to speak, when he rested on that seventh day. No, instead, God continued to be personally and actively involved in, as well as interested in, all of the affairs of this world, even after our fall in and through Adam, our first father. And one of the ways God shows his involvement and his interest is by, from time to time, appearing to real people in a real, visible form, which was then recorded for us in the Bible, in the scriptures. And the theological term for that is a theophany. A theophany. A theophany is simply a temporary, visible manifestation, visible appearance, visible display of God. Now, some might wonder, well, how is that even possible? I mean, don't we have verses like John 4.24 that says that God is a spirit? How can you see a spirit? Or even John says in John 1.18 that no man hath seen God at any time. Well, when we come to these theophanies in the Bible, God did from time to time in the Old Testament reveal and manifest some part of himself to us. Not in all the fullness of His nature, not in all the fullness of glory, but some aspect of His nature, some aspect of His glory. And so it is true. Though God is a spirit, no man has seen God in all of His glory, in all of His fullness, and lived to tell about it, for sure. But God does display some part of Himself, and sometimes it's the the powerful nature, the majestic nature. Sometimes it's that quiet, patient nature. But all of these are different aspects to that one true God whom we love and serve. An example of this is even to the people of Israel. God showed himself on many occasions by fire and by smoke. Those were theophanies as they were traveling through the wilderness for 40 years. They saw aspects of God's character and God's nature. These are theophanies. But there are other times where this manifestation of God took on a different form, not in just a natural form, but in really a human form. And even though that person would have looked like a man and talked like a man and even acted like a man, yet the words that that man said and the works that that man did proved him to be far more than just an ordinary man. In fact, the words in those works would have proven that he was God himself. Whenever God manifests himself in a human form in the Old Testament, I think it's best to see it as a Christophany. Not just a theophany, a manifestation of God and part of his glory, but a manifestation of Christ himself. A Christophany is a personal visible, pre-incarnate, that means before he actually was born in this world, pre-incarnate, manifestation, display, appearance of Jesus Christ. And of course, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. Who is God the Son? After all, we're told in Colossians 115 that Jesus Christ himself is the image of the invisible God. Jesus himself said, If you want to see the father, you've already seen me because I am the one who came to reveal the father. And so that's why when we see these human appearances, when we see these human manifestations, they are Christophanies. They point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus had a mission. not just when he was born, but even before he was born, and that was to reveal and to declare the Father to us, to reveal the Father in all of his glory and all of his grace. So over the next nine weeks, we're going to look at nine different times when Jesus visited this world before he was born into this world to personally and visibly appear to men. But we're not just going to look at when he appeared. I mean, we're not just going to look at it from a Sunday school class lesson. But we're also going to look at why he made these appearances. Not just when, but why. The reasons why he appeared. And so the first indication of Christ in the Old Testament, and this is even just a little bit after what we find from the creation account, which we know John describes is the word of God speaking. But the very first visible personal appearance of Christ in the Old Testament is found in Genesis chapter three. So I'd like us to turn there together if you're not already there. And I'd like us to read this somewhat familiar, but rather sad account of our own fall through the sin of Adam and Eve." Genesis 3, verse 1 through 21. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called into Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. The Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. We're gonna end our reading there. In this passage, we find Christ first in verse eight. When Adam and Eve, it says, heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. We see Christ there because it wasn't just a voice that was walking in the garden. It was the Lord God who was walking in the garden. The Lord God who had just created man took the form of a man so that he could walk with man and then talk with man as his new creation. But why would He do this? Why would Jesus Christ, even before His incarnation, way, way before His incarnation, not too long after the very beginning of His creation, why would Jesus Christ enrobe Himself with the flesh of man so He could walk in the garden that He had created for man? Why? Well, first, it's because Christ came Himself for fellowship, for fellowship. That's why the Lord God, Christ himself, enrobed himself in flesh to walk there in the garden for fellowship with them. It says again, when Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God who was walking in the garden, it seems like it might have been somewhat familiar to them. Moses kind of makes it sound like this is something that happened a time or two before. We're not exactly sure how long it took before the creation and the fall of Adam and Eve. We don't know if it was days, weeks, months. It was fairly soon afterwards, but it seems like this was not the first time when God the Son came and walked among and talked with them. So when God the Son came this time, he would have come to them in the same manner. The Lord God himself came walking the same manner as them. He would have been walking with a body. He would have been walking on two feet. He would have had two hands with that same body. He would have had a head with a face with eyes to see them and ears to hear them and a nose and a mouth to speak to them. And he came walking, it says. And he would have walked in the full appearance of a man. And I think this would have been the customary way that Adam and Eve enjoyed the fellowship with their creator God. For the creation to have fellowship with their creator, he came to them in the same manner. He also, I believe, came to them in the same place. Of course, this is the garden. He was walking in the garden, it says in verse 8. That Garden of Eden that God Himself had planted in that new world. And of course, if you remember what is described about the Garden of Eden, it was a place of great beauty. It was a great place of blessing. It was a place for the enjoyment and the benefit of those most like Him. Adam and Eve, made in His own image and made after His own likeness. So He came to them in that same special place But I think this was also a customary time in which he walked. He came to them at the same time, in the cool of the day. Because we know that God had given Adam and Eve work to do. Adam especially, to name the animals, and to tend to the garden. And this was probably the customary time where God would come and fellowship with them, and to see how things were going, and to be able to encourage, and to be a blessing, a continued blessing. And it was this breeze of the day. And we have to remember that this was the last perfect day there would be in this world. And so when the sun was moving closer to the horizon, hastening the end of that final perfect day, we find God walking in the garden to have fellowship with his creation. And you know, the Lord would have enjoyed these times of fellowship with Adam and Eve just as much as they did. And he still does, doesn't he? As much as we enjoy being able to talk with God in prayer and hear from God through his word, he enjoys that fellowship and desires that fellowship with you just as much as you do. And that was the same back then. Christ enjoyed the fellowship with Adam and Eve before this great fall. But this time, and on this day, Instead of that sweet conversation that they would have experienced in the past, what was there? There was a question. There was a question. What was that question? Where art thou? Where art thou, he asked. Where art thou, Adam and Eve? Why? Because they were not to be seen at this time. They were not to be seen in that garden. When the Lord came this time, they fled. Why? because of what we just read, their sin. They had disobeyed the voice of God, so now they were afraid of the voice of God. And the fellowship that Christ came to enjoy with His creation on that day and that evening had been broken. But then, second, what did Christ do? Christ called Himself for fellowship. Christ called to them for fellowship with them. Again, in verse nine, we read that the Lord God called unto Adam. He called unto Adam. So the same one who came to Adam and Eve in the garden called out to them in the garden with the same voice that he used to create them. He called out. How did he call out to them? He called out to them in his great majesty. You see, when the Lord called and said, Where art thou? He didn't say those words for his own sake. He didn't say those because he didn't know where they were. He didn't say those words because, you know, there are just too many trees and he couldn't see through them. No, he asked that question for the sake of Adam and Eve, because God knew where they were. God knew exactly where they were. They might have been running back and forth trying to make sure that God wouldn't see him, but he knew exactly where they were. After all, Proverbs 15 verse 3 says, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. So Christ did not ask this question so that he might find their hiding place in some fateful kind of game of hide and seek. No, he asked this question so that they would focus not on the place they were in the garden, but in the condition that they were in their heart, the condition that was caused by their sin. Christ called, Where art thou? But when they heard that voice of his majesty, the sharpness of his word struck the target of their hearts. As we saw in verse eight and Adam and Eve, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. When Christ called to them, it was so that they would know where they were. Not location, not geographically, not with a GPS, but to know where they were in their position and their condition before God. And truly, the position they were in, the condition that they were in, the place that they were in was a hard place. We're told in Proverbs 13, 15 that the way of transgressors is hard. And to hide in the garden was a hard place to be. To hide from the eyes of their creator was a hard place to be. To hide from Christ was a hard place to be. And so they hid from the majesty of Christ out of shame for their sin. But I don't believe this is the only way Christ called out to them. He may have only asked them once, where art thou? He might have done it multiple times because that was that voice that they heard as he was coming. You see, he came to them for fellowship, didn't he? He came to enjoy that fellowship that they had had days, weeks, possibly months before. And so he called out to them for fellowship as well. And he called out to them in his great mercy. I wonder, though, how did those words sound coming out of his mouth? They could have been very strong and firm. I mean, after all, he was their sovereign. He was their creator. He was their God. He could have called out to them to convict them and to judge them for their disobedience to him. But instead, I believe that these words were uttered in the same still small voice that the prophet Elijah heard when he was on the run from King Ahab and on the run even from his own responsibilities of ministry for God. You see, the voice was the voice of Christ. The voice was the voice of their sovereign, yes, but it was also the voice of their savior to call them back into fellowship with him. Those words, where art thou, were gracious words, weren't they? He could have said, you're hiding from me? I'll go on back to heaven and leave you where you are. But instead, no, he came to them and he called out to them. Those were gracious words, but they were also still great words. They were powerful words. They were effectual words, because I like how Matthew Henry describes it when he said that the Lord came in such a manner. And I think we could add he spoke in such a manner as made it formidable, imposing, but only. To guilty consciences. You know, sometimes when God speaks in a still, small voice, even to our own hearts, when we are guilty of something, when we have strayed, when we have hidden, when we have sinned, a lot of times that still, small voice sounds like a mighty, thunderous voice. And so as God, as Christ spoke it in that way of grace, they probably heard it as judgment because they knew that they'd sinned against God. So when Christ uttered these majestic and merciful words, they finally, eventually brought Adam and Eve from their hiding place to stand before Him, even in their sin and shame. And what a tragic circumstance. What a shameful thing to stand before the one you know that you disobeyed, you know that you had sinned against. We've all experienced that shame, haven't we? and you know that you had to fess up about something that you'd done or something that you'd said to the person that you had offended, or even to God whom you offended. Well, this was Adam and Eve, and this was the very first sin. They'd never known this kind of sin. They'd never known this kind of shame, and so they would have stood there fully embarrassed, I'm sure. Of course, we know that there are consequences for their sin. We just read that here in this chapter. But even as God was executing His judgment upon the serpent first, and then Eve, and then Adam, right in the middle of His judgment, we see another reason why or how Christ came. Christ came and committed Himself to them for fellowship. Christ came for fellowship, Christ called to them for fellowship, and then Christ actually committed himself for fellowship with them. Even as they stood there in their sin, in their shame, he committed himself to them. How? First of all, through the promise of a seed. Genesis 3.15, a verse that we're very familiar with, the first mention of the gospel that we've considered many, many times before. But it was the promise of a seed that would come one day to bring the final solution to the problem of sin. Again, Christ says to the serpent in Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And the one who said that to that serpent, I believe, knew that he would be that seed, and he would be that solution. He was the gospel that was preaching in that verse. So Christ committed himself through the promise of a seed. He says, that seed's gonna come. And no one else knew about Him, His Father, the Spirit, that He was that seed. But then Christ did something more. He committed Himself further through the provision of a sacrifice. The provision of a sacrifice to show Adam and Eve what was required so that their fellowship could be restored. Remember, Christ didn't leave when they hid. Christ came, Christ called, then Christ committed Himself to them so that that fellowship that was broken because of their sin and their shame could be restored. We see this provision in verse 21. If you jump down there where it says, almost as an afterthought unto Adam also and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. And even though that's just one sentence in one verse seems like kind of an afterthought, just think of all that that would have entailed for Christ. to make coats of skins and clothe them with those skins. Christ himself, who had just moments before been walking in the garden in the cool of the day on his own two feet, with those same feet as a man, walked over to some animals there in the garden. Not exactly sure where the animals were. Not exactly sure how many animals there were. Not exactly sure what animals they were. Probably it was a lamb. Probably a couple of lambs. He walked over to those animals there in the garden, and Christ himself personally chose the animals that he would use to do what this verse says. Put yourself in that garden with him. And then Christ himself, with the hands of a man, his own hands, took those animals and slaughtered those animals, those innocent creatures, right there in the presence and the sight of Adam and Eve, likely to their absolute horror. Because in doing so, Christ showed to them for the very first time, Adam, this is what death is. Remember when I told you that if you eat of that tree that I forbid you to eat, that you would surely die? This is what death is. He might have had some kind of an inkling what death is, maybe some kind of separation of fellowship, but he never really experienced death, but now he saw death before his very eyes. Perhaps in doing this, he tells Eve, Eve, this is what blood is, and this is what it looks like when it's shed. And this is what happens when it comes out of the body of these animals. It sinks down into the ground, which I created. This is what death is. This is what blood is to them both. He described and says, this is what a sacrifice is. This is what your sin caused. Now, I know that. We love animals. And when we see an animal suffer, it hurts us. And if we see an animal suffer because we caused that suffering, it hurts us even more. And imagine the horror and the fear and the trembling that would have overtaken Abany when they realized we caused the death of those animals. Their blood is on our hands. But then what did Christ do? Christ himself, still with those same hands of a man, but with the heart of God, would have flayed the skins off those animals and made them coats from those skins. He made those coats. And then even more, he took those coats that he had made, and it says here in verse 21, he clothed them. Now, remember, they were already partially clothed. They had strewn some fig leaves together, tried to cover whatever they could to hide themselves from their shame. But no, Christ, God in the flesh, took those coats. And as Adam and Eve stood there in all of their sin and all of their shame, Christ comes over softly and gently and carefully covers their nakedness with his own two hands. That is Christ in the garden. Christ restoring fellowship. Christ saying to Adam and Eve, I came for you. I called out to you and now I've committed myself to you. But even after all of this, Christ was not done, was he? What he had done then for Adam and Eve, he knew that he would one day do for all of us, for you and for me. So when thousands of years later, Jesus Christ was born and enrobed himself in flesh for that one final time, John 1.14 says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And that is why when we think about Jesus in heaven today, he is God, but he is God in flesh and he's in that flesh forever now. But Jesus came to you for the same reason he came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Isn't that remarkable? He actually came into this world for fellowship with you. In spite of all your sin, in spite of all your darkness, in spite of all your rebellion, He came for fellowship with you. But, I'm sure you could ask, where aren't they? Where aren't they? Are you experiencing and enjoying the sweet fellowship that Christ came to give you? Are you? Or when you sense His coming in some way, do you run and hide like Adam and Eve? Because you know of your sin, you know of your shame, you know of your guilt, and you don't want to think of Him, you don't want to talk to Him, you don't want to hear Him. Remember, He came for fellowship with you. Christ also came and then calls to us, calls to you, for the same reason that He called to Adam and Eve when they did hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God. You see, the Lord Jesus still calls out to each one of us for fellowship. For fellowship with us. Can you believe that God, Christ, come in the flesh, wants to have fellowship with us? He still calls us for fellowship. In Matthew 11, 28, familiar verse, Jesus calls to you and says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Again, come unto me. That's his call. Come unto me. But where are you when the Lord calls? You know, we should have familiar places and familiar times to be able to spend time with the Lord. And I wonder if there's times when the Lord says, where are you? Where are you? Why are you not talking to me in prayer? Why are you not hearing from me in my word? Where are you? He says, come unto me. And yet we often do not. We're absent. We're AWOL. But aren't we tired because of all of our own labors? Aren't we so often weary because of our own sinful loads? He came and he calls to us for fellowship. And so we ought to come. In John 7, 37, Jesus calls and says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me. and drink. But then again, we hear that call and we wonder, where are we? Where art thou, the Lord would say. If you're thirsty, he will quench your thirst. If you're hungry, he will fill your spiritual belly. But why do we stay hidden from him? Why is it that so many times we try to take comfort in the fig leaves of our own making and of our own choosing? Instead of enjoying that sweet fellowship that Christ came to give us and then calls out to us to give us, we say, you know what? I can handle these things on my own. Or if we sin and we're just going to kind of muddle in our shame, we don't come. And yet Christ says, where are you? He knows where we are. He doesn't say it for his sake. He says it for our sake, for your sake, to consider our own condition before him. Where are thou? But then Christ even offers you something better and something greater. Christ also committed himself to you for the same reason that he committed himself to Adam and Eve. He committed himself for fellowship with you. For fellowship. He is the one who came as the promised seed to be the final solution for your sin. The seed that he himself promised would come, he came. And then he became the sacrifice that he provided to fulfill all he required for our salvation. Jesus actually was the chosen lamb, taken by rough hands of the people that he came to save. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he was arrested, taken by the hands of his own people, and then thrust into the hands of foreign people, and in the hands of all these people, He said, I am the lamb that you can take. His was the life that had to die. His was the blood that had to be shed. His was the body that had to be broken so that when he rose from the dead three days later, he could then take you and take me and clothe you and clothe me, not with skins of animals, but with himself. with his own self, with his own righteousness, with his own holiness, with his own love. But again, where aren't that? After all that Christ did for Adam and Eve there in the garden, after all that Christ has done for us, coming to us, calling for us, committing himself to us, where are we? You know, Christ doesn't ask this question for his sake, but for ours. And if you are somewhere that you are not supposed to be tonight. Then think. Think about where you are. And see Christ coming to you afresh. Hear Christ calling to you anew and then remember how Christ committed himself to you and go to him. Run to him for the sweet fellowship that he created you for. Christ in the garden is the same Christ that came for us, called us, and committed himself to us so that we could have fellowship with him forever and ever. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you again that we really don't have to go too far in our Bibles to see Christ in the Old Testament. And we're thankful, Lord, that when we see the Lord God walking in the garden of the cool of the day. We know that the one who is walking was the one who had enrobed himself in the flesh of man, perhaps for one of the very first times to be able to enjoy the fellowship with the ones that he created. Adam and Eve, the ones who were most like him most like you, so that he could enjoy that sweet conversation. And yet, Lord, we know that he also came after they sinned, after they were ashamed, after they had disobeyed his voice. And so we see it's all of grace. We're thankful, Lord, that you sent the Lord Jesus Christ on that day. to come to Adam and Eve, to call out to Adam and Eve, and then to commit himself to Adam and Eve so that they could have that fellowship and relationship restored, not by the blood of animals, but by the blood and the sacrifice of the one those animals would represent. His own sacrifice. His own blood. his own body broken for us. So, Father, I pray that we will think about that question tonight. Where art thou? Where are we in our condition and position before you today, Lord? Have we been enrobed by the righteousness of Christ? Have we had his blood upon us to cover all of our sins and to cleanse us from all of our sins. If not, Father, help us to realize that that's why he came. That's why he was incarnated. That's why he was born into this world, so that he could call us to himself. So that he could commit himself to us by being the sacrifice that he had promised all the way back in that garden. So that whosoever believeth in him will not perish. but have everlasting life. And yet, Lord, so often even those who have responded by faith to Christ in the garden, sometimes we're still AWOL. Sometimes we hide. We hide because of our sin. We hide because of our shame. We hide because of so many other reasons. We are not where we're supposed to be because the cares of this world often distract us. So, Lord, I pray that we will hear his voice again in our own hearts as he says, Where are you? Don't you remember that I came for you? Don't you remember that I called out to you? Don't you remember that I committed myself to you so that we could enjoy fellowship, sweet fellowship? Oh, Father, forgive us for going away and running and hiding. like Adam and Eve, like our earliest parents did. And then, Father, I pray that you would draw us again with the arms of your everlasting love and grace. I pray, O Lord, that you would draw us so that we might run after you, that, Lord, you would prick our hearts with even those words so that we would see our condition, we would see our position, we would see our place and run to you, run knowing that you are a God with open arms. We are the prodigal so many times and yet you are that good father who not only will kill the fatted calf in order to provide for our needs, but then to give us that wonderful robe, the robe of our own savior so that we can enjoy that fellowship without shame, without guilt. So father, I pray that we will know where we are. And even this very night, if we are not enjoying that fellowship with you, I pray, O Lord, that you would restore that fellowship to us as we once again remember why Christ came, why Christ called us, and why Christ committed himself to us as a sacrifice for our sins. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.