Now, Paul made that a lot plainer in following Christ, and he said that we're crucified with Christ. We're not just following him, but we give up our life. One pastor said that whenever we follow Christ, That it's a life where we give up all. And certainly, we have to understand that's true. I'm going to be reading this morning from the book of Mark, beginning in the very first verse, Mark chapter one, if you want to go ahead and turn there in your Bibles. But a lot of times, one of the things that we normally do at the end of the service is we talk about the things that what has God called us to. And what is God doing in our life? And one of the things that psychology teaches is that you have 20 minutes. If you're given a speech, you have 20 minutes to hold people's attention. And after that 20 minutes, usually you see people nodding off or whatever. And certainly that's our human standpoint because we're all human and we have that. And sometimes, some of us it's easier to pay attention to than others. Now, one of the problems that I face and many of us face in our older age is I have hearing problems. And in those hearing problems, a lot of times I don't hear real well what's happening and what's actually said. And sometimes I go back and I listen to Brother Kerry's sermon. And I did certainly Brother Napthali's sermon because I couldn't understand everything that he said. And many of you know that our amplifiers have been out. Well, we have new ones, so hopefully, The sound is better this morning. But one of the things that we have to understand, just like what we just sung, and like the Bible tells us is that people that are lost are underneath the snare of the devil. We talked about that in Sunday school this morning, and read several scriptures. And one of those scriptures is in Hebrews 4.12 says, for the word of God. as quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." See, the Word of God is what it is that leads men to Christ. In the very first book here, or very first verse here in the book of Mark, look at what it says. It says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Well see, if that gospel has not had an effect on your life, here's what the gospel should do and should have done in your life. Number one is, it should have revealed your sin to you. That's the first move, that's the first effect that the gospel has on a person that is about to be saved or a person that is saved because we never stop seeing that sin because it has not gone away. We'll live with it throughout the rest of our life. We'll only be separated from it when Christ takes us to be with him. Then we will be sinless. We'll know what that's like then. But see, the important thing this morning is that Do you see your sin? Do you understand that there's no way you can save yourself that it took Christ to make this sacrifice on the cross in order for us to be saved? There's no other way. He said it himself in John 14, 6. He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There's many people out there that believe many different ways to be saved. Some believe you can't even be saved. Some believe that there is no heaven. You know, the Beatles sung about that. What if there is no heaven? What if there is no hell? But we know there is because the book of truth tells us that. But in the beginning, Mark wrote about this gospel right off the bat. If you look at Matthew, and this has been an amazing study for me when you start looking at the gospels, but if you turn back to the book of Matthew chapter one, here's what it says, and I certainly don't want to read all this, but it says, talking about the genealogy. It says, the very first verse there in the book of Matthew says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Well, he really wasn't the son of David, but Matthew was inspired by God to write all this genealogy. And I'm certainly not going to read all of that, but I want to show you something that's very important. Verse 16 and verse 17. Verse 16 and verse 17 says this, and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Do you see the perfection of the work in God's hand? You know, I read to you just a few months ago about how many people it takes just for us to be here today. Well, God plans it all and it's perfectly in his planning and it was perfectly in his planning through the Jewish people to bring the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And that's what Mark starts out here saying about this. Well, Luke, when he wrote his gospel, was inspired to write about the birth of John the Baptist. And through this birth of John the Baptist, after that, he goes into a detailed expression of the birth of Christ, a detailed story, a synopsis of the birth of Christ he writes there. And it's amazing to see what Luke wrote. Luke. Who was the physician? Well, John, if you look at John, here's what John says. From the very beginning of John, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So what is John saying? In other words, Christ is, first of all, just like what Luke said here, he's the son of God, he is God, he's deity, but he has been. He didn't just begin, God didn't just appoint a man that was good enough to become Christ, as many people have preached, but he appointed his son, he sent his son to be the savior for the world, to save man. Well, If you look at the book of John, and if you want to turn over there and look at this right quick, John chapter one, here's what John wrote by inspiration of the spirit in verse 14. He said, and this word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory and the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Now, None of us have ever stood before a sinless person. Could you imagine what that was like to stand before Almighty God in his perfection, to look into his eyes and see that perfection? One of the things that the Jews wrote is that he had the eyes of a dove. And if you've ever looked into an eyes of a dove, they have unusual eyes, beautiful eyes. But can you imagine like John was, and that's the reason I believe John was inspired to write the way he did because he was so close to Christ. He was the very best friend, the closest disciple to Christ. He's the one that leaned on Christ's bosom. He's the one that was with Christ when he prayed. Could you imagine that? A sinless man, God in the flesh, and you hear him praying, you see his compassion, you see how he treats other people. with the most love that you can't even describe. John went on at the end of the book of John and said, there's more that could not be written because books couldn't contain what all happened in the life of Christ. Could you imagine that? What a glorious thought that even is, is that we could imagine such a thing that these men saw. Now, the book of Mark, Mark was not an apostle. He never saw Christ. But it's believed that Mark was, and he was, he was inspired by Paul. He was part of Paul's missionary journeys at one time. But he was more inspired by Peter. And most people believe that his gospel was actually mostly inspired by the writings from Peter. And whether that's true or not, we don't know. But we know that the Lord put in the life of Mark and in the heart of Mark to write this gospel. And let me read. The first eight verses there in chapter one of Mark, says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel hair and with a girdle and a skin about his loins. and he did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached saying, there cometh one mightier than I am, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he will baptize her. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. So from the very beginning of this gospel, you see here what Mark was led to write. in the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, this wasn't in the beginning of the gospel, because you go all the way back to the beginning of the word of God, you see this great gospel. You see it in the book of Genesis. You saw it in the book of all of the prophets, this great gospel. But this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus' work here on the earth that Mark was led to write about. But look what it says. And this is very important that we see these things. When you read the word of God, it's not just words on a page, the beginning of the gospel, not a gospel, but the gospel. Now, to me, if you hear people define that word gospel today, here's how they define it. And to me, it's a very cheap definition. They say, well, it's good news. It's this good news of Jesus Christ. Well, that's true, but it's a lot more than that. supernatural news from Jesus Christ to change man and to change men into men that are hateful, arrogant, mean, and deceptive into men who love Christ, who have a heart of flesh. The Bible tells us that. John Paul wrote about that. He's given us, he's changed us from sinners to, from a stony heart. to a heart of flesh. See, that's the salvation. That's the beginning. It's this gospel, the gospel. There's not more than one gospel. There is this gospel. There's also not more than one Christ, the Son of God. Notice that little word there, the. I had a Jehovah's Witness guy stand in my yard, and the reason he came back to my house He was actually the pastor of the Jehovah's Witness Church. I don't know if he's still alive. He didn't know I knew who he was, but I knew who he was. And he stood in my yard, and here's what he said. He said, talking to me, he said, we believe that Jesus is a son of God. Now listen to what I said carefully. A son of God, not the son of God. See, that little bitty phrase, that little bitty word there tells us that there is no other. He is the Son of God. He is God in the flesh. And we have to understand that when we read the Bible. It's not just words on a page. They're put there, and the men that were inspired to write this wrote it perfectly. I was doing a little bit of study on the Bible and the writing of the Bible, and the things that you see in the Bible are just amazing. when you really look at it, because one of the things was language. Because, you know, a lot of times Christ spoke in Aramaic, but Aramaic was kind of a primitive language. And the Greek influence over the Jews led most of them to speak in Greek. Matter of fact, most of these sermons that were preached that you read in the Bible that Paul preached, it was in Greek. because it was a beautiful language and it was language able to be able to express the words of God throughout the Bible. So most of it was written in Greek. That or it was translated out of Hebrew or translated out of Aramaic to us today into English. So every bit of it is very important when we read it. Now, one of the things that we have to understand in order to understand this gospel is what was happening What was the environment like in Israel at this time? And if you go back and you study a little bit of that, Brother Kerry made a comment to this the other night, is that the Jews had perverted the Jewish religion. They had perverted what God laid out perfectly for them to do. If you remember in the Old Testament when he gave them the tabernacle, They did everything exactly as he told them to do. He commanded them to do things, to lay out the temple, to lay out the tabernacle, the tent, the way he commanded them to do. Well, they perverted that. Matter of fact, the last temple that was built was not even the Jewish original temple. Their religion was perverted, and in this perversion, one of the things they used to pervert that was the book called the Talmud, which was a commentary on the first five books of the Bible. Well, in this commentary, they wrote things in there that really did not apply to scripture. And one of the things was to describe this Messiah, who he was. Well, see, they believed that this Messiah was going to be the one who would be on the tabernacle of the temple, the very top of the temple, ruling the nation of Israel. And he would free them from this Roman rule, and he would rule all the earth as a earthly king. That's what they believed, and that's what they taught. So we have to understand from that that teaching is very important, how we teach, and we must teach the Bible correctly. Well, they perverted it. And in that perversion, the Jews were even split among themselves. But that's why, and that's what you see whenever you see here this writing of Mark and all the other Gospels and the Bible and the things that Paul wrote, Paul being a Jew, understood all that. But look at what it says, it says that is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. Now that comes out of Isaiah chapter 40, verse three. I'm sending my messenger, see the will of God, when God willed something, it took place. Also something you have to understand here, during this time when Christ came, prophecy had ceased in Israel. They heard no message from God. Matter of fact, if you look at those 400 years, if you look at the book of Malachi and you look at my Bible has it, has the age of it, 397 years before the time of Christ, before Christ's coming. So when you begin to look at that, you realize that because of their sin and because of the way Israel had lived, God no longer gave them anything from the word of God, except for what was written, and what was written they had perverted. So that's how they live. So why in the world, as it says here, this man, why would God do what he does? He sent this man, as many of the Old Testament prophets called John, John the Baptist, to prepare the way of Christ. Now think about that, and you can come up with many reasons. The Bible doesn't tell us why. That's God's choosing, and we can't question that. God chose to do that. Why did he put Bethlehem Baptist Church here to go out and reach people for Christ? Why didn't he just exert his power and save everybody? Because it wasn't his will to do that. We don't know why. We don't know the mind of God. And at certain places, some people say you should not go, and I believe that's one of them. We shouldn't question that. But he sent this man, and he was not a man that we would send. I mean, you're not going to go out and hire somebody that's dressed in camel skin with a leather belt around his waist. So why? Did they go out to hear this man preach that looked like John the Baptist? But he went to prepare the way of the Lord to make the path straight. Says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. See, he went to prepare the way of the Lord to make, when the Lord came, that people would be prepared. Now think about this. If you were a Jew this morning, the time of Christ's coming, you would be taking an offering to the temple to be sacrificed for your sin. And you had grown up into that all of your life, that you understood that everything you did in order to get your sins covered, you had to go with a sacrifice to the temple. Now here's this man, he's preaching something totally different. You come and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, for the remission, actually, is what it says in verse four, for the remission of your sins. So do you see why Paul and all the other apostles and the evangelists like Mark had such a hard time reaching the Jews? See, their religion had been perverted to the point that it was no longer what God intended it to be. And now here's this man preaching this. But yet, when you look at the history, here's what you see. You see that all down through all the persecution that the Jews went through, all the, when God threw them out of Jerusalem, whenever Babylon came and took them over, Nebuchadnezzar took them over and destroyed the temple, they always maintained the fact, and this in their mind, that this Messiah was coming. He's coming. And at this time, from what writers say during this time, with all the perversion that was going on, there was a time in the history of their life that they were looking for this Messiah. They were urgently looking and searching. So this new teaching of this new man, many of them went out. It says, and John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. And it said there went out unto them all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized in him in the river of the Jordan, confessing their sin. So y'all, that's new. Now when John came on the scene preaching this, but yet God had prepared the whole nation to the point that they were looking for this Messiah to come. So when this one's out here preaching something, even though it's totally new, they went. Now not all of them went. The ones that were called went. But you see that. God had prepared in that nation the time and everything that was going on, their emotions and everything for them to go out and hear John. Now, John preached the word of God. See, that's very important that we realize that, too. He didn't just preach something. He preached the word of God. He preached repentance. And if you go and you look at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, the first thing he said was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, remember, I asked you at the beginning of this sermon, what must we do? We must realize our sin and we must repent from it. I told the Sunday school class this morning, one of the worst things I ever did, is I worked for this guy that was a horrible guy to work for. He could not say a sentence without cussing. Most of the time, every bit of it was cussing. You had to just kind of filter in your mind what he was trying to say around these cuss words. He was so bad. He was also a drunk. And I prayed, Lord, give me patience to deal with this man. Well, see, that's a dangerous prayer, because first thing the Lord did is he showed me what was wrong in my life. He showed me my sin that I had began to hate this man. Well, when you begin to hate somebody, it doesn't just stop there. It goes on and it grows and it escalates until you catch yourself hating everything you're involved in. If you're not careful, That's where it leads you if you're not careful. The remission of sin. We must confess our sin and get our sins out of our life. It must be a daily thing, at least a daily thing. Verse 5 says, And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sin. Now, they were not all baptized. If you look at the history and some of the other apostles, they came to John and John said, who warned you? Who warned you? He didn't baptize. So they were not all baptized. So what does that mean? It means the ones that were called, those that God intended to be there, they were there. And if you look over in the book of Acts, many of them were rebaptized after they confessed Christ. So going on, it says, One of the important things in this is John. It says in verse six, John was clothed with camel's hair and with girdle, a skin about his loins. And he did eat locust and wild honey. Now, here's what we have to look at in this. As Christians today, We should not be affected by the things out there in the world. Even though we are, we have to live in the world and we see the things of the world. The devil tempts us through the things of the world. He tempts us through our flesh. But see, what does the world live for? And I've lived around men and worked for men that desire the things of the world and they do whatever. I worked for a guy that had girlfriends. And it was not, he didn't even hide it. Come to the point, him and his wife separated and were divorced, and eventually she took him back. But, and he was fired from our company because of that. See, John had clothing that was not like a high priest. I don't know if you've ever seen pictures of a high priest. I have a book that has pictures of a high priest. They either wore solid white, and most of it was silk, and it had gold tassels and gold inlaid around the edges. That or either it was maroon, it was a red color with gold around the edges. Well, they wouldn't dare go out into the country. Matter of fact, most of them thought that, or out in the desert, most of them thought that that was a dark place, a place where there were demons, and they had taught people that. But John was not that way. He was distinctly different than any of the rest of the religious people of that day. Now, see, that's the way as Christians we should be. We should be distinctly different. Now, think about this just a minute. If you open up your, whether you're opening up the news or whatever you're opening up on your phone or your computer or whatever, Here's what you see. You see men and women who desire power, and they desire power to the point that they will step on anybody. They will destroy anybody they can to get there. Well, see, that's not us as Christians. We're the opposite of that. We should be humble. We should be people that live a humble life. Humility should be a part of our characteristic as Christians. Also, here's what you see in the world. You see men dressed like women and you see women. I'm not even going to describe how they're dressed. I mean, you can go to Walmart and you see it. Some people, I have, you know, some women that you see as men, you have to just turn your head and not even look at, because they're so indecently dressed this day and time as Christians. We should not dress that way. We should dress, and it reminds me of a guy that I saw, and I call him a guy, he wasn't a preacher, but a church right around here, it's fairly close to here. As a matter of fact, Vaughn just showed me the service. And the preacher got up there, and he had on tennis shoes, a pair of blue jeans, and a white t-shirt. It looked like it should have been washed, but it wasn't. It was disgusting. See, we're different than that. We should be different than that. We should dress differently. And we should act differently. See, John didn't act like the Jews. See, the Jews were pious. They were prideful. They wouldn't come out of the city. But they did go out to see John because they had to. They had to figure out what this was. What is this new way that's going on here? They had to go out there to see it. to see what was going on. But this dress of John, the words of John should teach us that we don't live like the world. We should not desire the things of the world. We should not be running down to places like Disney World, spending our money there. We should be supporting the church. That should be, that is our calling. He didn't eat the things, he didn't even eat the things that other people ate. He ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, the Bible says there in verse seven, preached, saying, there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Christ. See, when it comes to us, the one that we should look to for direction and the one that we should uphold higher than any other thing in this world is Christ. See, without him, we can do nothing. We read a passage of scripture in Ephesians 1 in Sunday school this morning. If you want to turn to Ephesians 1, it says that our occupation the very things that God has called us to be. Ephesians chapter four and verse one says this, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, because Paul was in prison at this time in Rome, he said, beseech you, I urge you is what that means, that you ought worthy of the vocation wherein you're called. This vocation, see our vocation is Christianity. And Christianity has a calling. We're called to Christ. As Christians, we're called to Christ. And we have this calling. We have this appointment that God has appointed us to. And if you look at that, what it says, how are we, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the bond of peace, or keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So among ourselves, we should hold each other, Christ in the highest esteem, but we should hold each other in high esteem, meaning that when somebody hurts, we hurt. When somebody's sick, we hurt for them, our heart breaks for them. Whenever we can't do the things that we want to do, our heart breaks for that because we're unable to do it. Now Paul goes on down here and he says something that's very important and it ties right in with the book of Mark and the gospel because here's what he said in uplifting Christ and keeping Christ in the highest position. He says in verse 13, Or verse 12, he said, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, see, the building up of the body of Christ, we must have this unity that we see here that the Bible's talking about. He says, till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Until we come in our Christian faith as far as God has determined that we should come, we need to keep this unity. We need to love each other. And this is talking about agape love, godly love, not human love, but godly love, which can only happen through the infilling of the spirit of God. Can't happen any other way. But then he says this. that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So as Christians, we should be above that. As Christians today, knowing and understanding the word of God, we should not be tossed to and fro. If somebody says something that's not according to the word of God, And Brother Carey's been preaching that in the 1689. 1689 says very clearly that it is the Holy Scripture is the most important thing. In order for men to be saved, what does it take? The Holy Scripture. We shouldn't be tossed to and fro. We shouldn't be wondering. I remember wondering about the things in the late 60s and early 70s. Matter of fact, the church we're a member of in Texas, had pulled out of the Southern Baptist Convention because of this, because there was a big thing in the Baptist churches about speaking in tongues. Some of you are old enough to remember that. Well, this church had a group of people that they expelled out of that church because they were demanding speaking in tongues. That church was a very strong church because of the things that they had done. But they also pulled out of Southern Baptist Convention because of that, because it was a big uproar. But if you remember, what was the next thing that was a big uproar? Is the word of God infallible. So you cannot drift off into wrong doctrine without it becoming worse. It becomes wronger. Well, see, as Christians today, and I hope this is helping you and that it is helping you to be uplifted here in this church, but we do not stand there. We don't stand for this false doctrine, even though, as the Jews did, we cannot stand to take the word of God and add to it or take away from it or leave part of it out, as far as that goes, without it being wrong. without it being something that's going to lead people astray. And see, the devil is constantly trying to do that. And I thought about this, and that statement is this. Growing up on the farm, you know, there's funny things happened on the farm. And I remember there was a lot of funny things, but there was a lot of serious things, too, that happened around the chicken house. Now, we didn't have a little bitty coop like these things you see today. We had almost like a barn. I don't remember how many chickens we had, but we had a lot. And during the day, we would open the gate and let the chickens out. But it was built so that nothing could get in, we thought. But I remember one day, one of the funny things, when I was really young, I decided I was going to go gather the eggs. And I had on pants with pockets. And I put those eggs in my pockets. Well, you know what happened. By the time I got home, I was a mess. By the time I got to the house. But the other thing that happened that I'll never forget, and my mother didn't forget it until the day she died, is she went in to gather the eggs, and we had these boxes made, and they were made just the perfect size for hens to get in and lay. And Mother, without looking, just ran her hand up in that box to get the egg, and she put her hand on a big chicken snake. And he was so big that these boxes were built probably seven or eight feet wide and depth probably four or five feet deep. And there were several mini boxes there for the chickens to get in and lay. And that snake was so big that he covered several of those. I mean, he was probably this big around, what I remember. Well, my mother came out of the chicken house really fast. As we say in the South, she got some yonder. And she got it really fast from this snake. But that poor old snake, that 12-gauge, he just didn't survive. I mean, we were not environmentalists that say you need to capture that snake and go put him out in the wild because he was just doing what he's supposed to do as a snake. Well, he didn't survive, put it that way. But funny things happen. But see, here's the way it is when it comes to Satan. He's just like that snake. He's hidden. You can't see him. You cannot smell him. You can't taste him. With any of your five senses, you cannot understand that he's there. But he's constantly there. But unlike that chicken snake, that's not poisonous. He's deadly poison. And he will destroy you at any expense that he has to take. We have to understand that as Christians. We understand that because we see it. In my life, I've seen men that could have been great men destroyed because Satan got into their life. There was a man right here in our church, left his wife for another woman, had teenage kids, married this other woman. After about not even a year, she kicked him out. So he married again. I don't know how many times he's been married now, but here's the thing. He eventually called his original wife that he left. Here's what he said. Don't you know that I understand that I messed up? Well, he did more than mess up. He committed adultery. He abandoned his family. Because whatever reason, but see Satan is there constantly trying to destroy us. Martin Luther said he's out to destroy the church. That's us. He's just like that snake. You can't see that he's there until it's too late. You got your hand on it. It's too late. See, that's what we have to understand. And when you look at this gospel of Jesus Christ, why in the world? First of all, there wouldn't have been a gospel without Jesus Christ. See, God could have just destroyed all of mankind. He could have destroyed Adam and Eve and never created another man. But he didn't. He chose to do the way he's done things. And he chose us to be the runners for Christ. Apostle John, or John, not the Apostle John, excuse me, John the Baptist was the forerunner. Well, we're the runners for Christ. We must take this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, this news, that is it, the news that changes the lives of men, we must take it to the people that we know, the people that we're around, our family. See, you don't think your family's watching you. They watch every move that we make. and see as Christians, we must not give up and we must not become like them, but we must live differently. We must live like Christ lived. We must live like John the Baptist here was led to live different, totally different than the world, but yet proclaiming this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, I'll ask this question again. Have you ever seen your sin? Has the spirit revealed that sin to you and have you repented of it and have you turned to Christ? That is this gospel, is that we have to repent. We're sinners. We fall short every day of Christ and we must turn to Christ. We must repent. And we also must understand for the ones of us that have repented and for the ones that will, that he will be resurrected just like he was resurrected. and he will be the one who comes after us. The Bible says that. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Let's pray.