or in Mark chapter 10, look down at verse number 46, a very familiar portion of scripture, a little story he tucked all along. And they, meaning Jesus and the disciples, came to Jericho, and as he, meaning Jesus, went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great number of people, blinded Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. In other words, they told him to shut up. But he cried the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called And they called the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, lo thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Isn't this a beautiful story? By the way, it's not just a story, it's fact. If it's in the Word of God, it happened the exact way that it says it happened. I'm glad that I can trust it. By the way, let me remind us tonight, you can trust the Bible for everything in eternity and for everything here on Earth. All my eggs are resting in the basket of the accuracy of the Word of God, and I'm glad for that. That's why when I preach it, I can preach it with authority and confidence because God wrote it, not man. And I'm glad this is a story, but even more importantly, I'm glad that it actually happened. Friends, if I could ask you, what is your favorite attribute of God? That'd be a loaded question, wouldn't it? You can't remove any one thing from God. They're all inherently linked together. They're all perfect attributes. I guess if you could summarize God's attributes in one word, it would be holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Be ye holy, for I am holy. He's perfect, He's sinless, He's pure, He's set apart, He's the only wise God. He's never sinned, nor does He tempt man to sin. But Frank, can I suggest tonight that maybe the attribute of God that means the most to me personally is His mercy. Aren't you glad that we serve a merciful God? We use that phrase so much it almost becomes cliche as we spout about our Christianese in our language, but because of God's mercy, I am never going to get what I deserve. In fact, I want to tell you tonight, we deserve hell. We do. Not because God is mean, not because he's a cosmic ogre waiting to destroy you the first chance he gets. but because our sin has separated us from a holy God. And if you want God to be who he is, then you have to have a God who hates sin. Otherwise, he's not God. And he can't look on sin. He doesn't entertain it. He doesn't look on it. And therefore, you and I can't get to heaven in our sin. We have to have the righteousness of another. And that's Jesus Christ. But because of the righteousness of Christ, I will never spend one nanosecond in hell. And all the God's people said? And isn't that wonderful? That's a wonderful, wonderful truth. God's grace and his mercy sometimes get confused. Grace, as somebody once said, is unmerited favor. Someone took the word grace and made it an acrostic and said, God's riches at Christ's expense. That's a good definition. The word grace in the Greek language literally means gift. God bestowing upon us grace is when I get what I don't deserve. And that's heaven. But not only heaven, but all the peace and power and purpose that I need here on earth to live a life that pleases the Lord, including the giftings that he gives each one of his children. That's the grace of God. But because of his mercy, I'm not getting what I deserve. I can't think of another story in the word of God that more illustrates the marvelous mercy of God than right here in Mark 10. Let's talk about it for a few minutes tonight. Father, help us as we look into your word. I pray you bind the devil tonight. Pray you bind distractions. We all need your mercy, Lord. We need it every moment of every day. It's of your mercies that we're not consumed. Would you please not allow the devil to steal the good seed of the word of God away tonight? May it find fertile ground in the hearts of hearers. Maybe there's someone who's come to the Monday service but never come to mercy in Christ and been saved. Lord, would you please help them to see their need for a Savior and that they would repent of their sin and believe the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus for their personal sin. Father, maybe there's a believer here tonight that's been living in rebellion against you and then presuming on your grace and rather than seeking your forgiveness and mercy, Lord, would you please allow them to change that direction, that they would repent of that sin as a believer, that they would confess it and forsake it so that you can use them and they'd be vessels fit for the Master's use. Father, maybe there's some of us here tonight that we've not been very merciful and kind and forgiving in our dealings with others. Would you please break our hearts, Lord, that we would show forth the mercy of Jesus to our world around us that desperately needs to see it. As always, we claim Isaiah 55 11, your word does not return to you void. It will prosper in the purpose for which you send it. We also claim Romans 10, 17, so then faith cometh by hearing, and a hearing by the word of God. Father, please produce faith in the hearts of hearers tonight. And we give you the honor and glory for it. In Jesus's name, amen. So I'm driving here tonight, and I'm getting a little bit more familiar with it. It's my third time driving over to the church tonight. And you know, the little communities, the little back roads you turn on. And I got a police officer behind me. And I was like, he kind of slowed down, he backed off of me. And I thought, I bet you this dude's reading my plate. Because here I am a little community from Virginia, what's this dude doing here? And I got that little light feeling in my chest, you know, when you get the blue light special that comes on and I'm not talking about Kmart. Amen. I'm talking about when you get a ticket, and I've had tickets in my life. And I didn't want another one. All right. And he followed me for a little bit, and I guess he read my plate or whatever it was, and I guess he was satisfied. And he went on down the road, and I'm like, oh, shoo. Because I want to tell you, every time in my life that I've ever been pulled over for speeding, I was guilty. There has never been a time where it was a disguised speed limit sign that I didn't see, or my odometer, my speedometer messed up, or the police officer just had a bone to pick and wanted to fill his quota. No, I was guilty as sin every time. And if he'd have pulled me over this time, I'd have probably deserved it too. But it didn't happen. Man, I'm so glad for the times that God could have lowered the boom on you and me, but he didn't. You know what, it'd be wonderful if HG Wells was right and we really could travel in a time machine. I'd get on Amazon and I'd order one of those big boys because you can get everything else on Amazon, why not a time machine, amen? And I would get in that thing, Brother Earl, and I would go back in time and I would change times that I failed God, wouldn't you? Aren't there things that you would change if you could? Aren't there times that you've said things and thought things and done things or not said things, not thought things, and not done things that you should have? And you're like, Lord, forgive me for it. And I wanna tell you this. I don't have a martyr's complex. I'm not trying to sound super spiritual. I just wanna be transparent with you here tonight. It's of the Lord's mercy that I'm standing here tonight. It's in the Lord's mercy. Say, Brother Barry, you're a preacher. That doesn't matter. Brother Barry, did you grow up in a Christian home? I did. Were you in the youth group? Yeah, I guess I was the Billy Bible of my youth group, so to speak, if you want to call it that. But there have been times that I've taken my fist in God's face, and I've rebelled against him and done things that weren't right, and I knew it, and God could have mopped the floor with me when I did that. But he didn't. Because he's merciful, and he's kind. And we need that friend. Several things I want you to see tonight about the marvelous mercy of God. Number one is this. I want you to see mercy required. Look at verse 46 as we make our way down through this story. And they came to Jericho and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. Number one, I want you to see that Bartimaeus was blind. Now, friend, I don't know about you, but the condition for him was probably since birth. I don't know about you, but if somebody said to you, you've got to lose one of your five senses. You choose which one it is, but you've got to sacrifice one of your five senses. I don't know what you would choose, and I'm not exactly sure what I would choose, but I can tell you which one I would not choose, and that would be my sight. Now, the older I get, the worse my eyes get. Now, I don't know about you, but I read better with my glasses off. The words pop off the page to me. Some of you, it's the opposite. With my wife, it's the opposite. She can see very well far away, but she wears readers for when she reads. I'm the opposite. I remember I used to play church league softball, and I played the outfield, and I would wear glasses to pick up the ball off the bat. If I'm watching TV, I remember I used to sit in chapel in Bible school before I got glasses and just squint trying to make out the facial features of the speaker that was speaking that day. So I wore glasses. But here's what my optometrist told me. He said, here's some encouragement for you, Brother Barry. Here in about 10 years, they're gonna meet in the middle, and you're gonna need glasses for both. Isn't that a wonderful encouragement? I said, yeah, thank you, Doc. I really appreciate that, all right? But I thank God for my sight. Friend, I want to tell you something. Everybody in here at one point in time was blind. And maybe you're here tonight and you're still blind. The devil has sold much of Christendom a lie. And the lie is this, that if your good bricks outweigh your bad, then God will let you in. In the end of god of love lets everybody in and friend. I want to tell you what that's not found the word of god The bible says in titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness, which we've done But according to his mercy He saved us Ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves? It's the gift of god not of works lest any man should bow If you think you're going to heaven because you're baptized friend, you're blind If you think you're going to heaven because you came to a revival meeting on a Monday night, you're blind. It's not about your moral code. It's not about having a relative in the ministry. It's not about having your name on a church roll. It's not about paying your taxes, or being a good citizen, or being a wonderful spouse, or a wonderful child, or making straight A's, or helping old ladies across the street with their groceries. None of it saves you. And if you believe that, you're blind. Mercy required. Everybody in here, whether you realize it or not, you require the mercy of God in your life. Some people say, well, I don't need God's mercy. What has he ever done for me? The very fact that you're six feet above ground and that you can put one foot in front of the other one and suck oxygen into your lungs and God allows you one more day to avoid a devil's hell is the mercy of God. Bartimaeus was blind. But number two, the Bible says Bartimaeus was a beggar. It says that he sat by the highway side begging. Now I haven't been to Ohio long enough to know the answer to this question. But I do know that in Roanoke, Virginia, a lot of times in the median of the road, we will have people sitting and begging for food and for help. Say, Brother Barry, they're all con artists. Well, some of them are, I'm sure. Some of them probably make way better money than you and I do. And they run scams, no doubt about it. But I think there are some of them that are legitimate. They've reached the end of their rope. They have no more pride. They have no more dignity. And they decide to ask a complete stranger for help. And here's the bottom line. Here's the litmus test. If God leads you to give to that person, then do it. If God needs you to do it, then do it. If he doesn't, then don't worry about it. Except for the very one if they buy drugs and alcohol, well, that's their choice, not mine. If God needs me to do something, I need to obey, amen? The Bible says in 1 John that with our love for one another, what good is it if we tell people to depart and be ye filled and clothed, and yet if we have the resources to give them clothes and food and we don't do it, then how does the love of God dwell in us? We're all beggars. Before you got saved, you were spiritually starving. As a matter of fact, God takes it a step further. Before you got saved, you were dead. Ephesians 2 says, and you have been quickened, which is a Bible word that means made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. We were spiritual zombies before we got saved. We might put one foot in front of the other one physically, but inside we're full of dead man's bones. And we were beggars. Anybody ever heard of a Christian comedian named Mark Lowry? He's a singer and a comedian. Here's what he said. He said, I'm just a beggar showing other people where to find bread. Isn't that good? And that's what you and I are as believers is we share the gospel and say, listen, I was blind. I was a beggar. Let me show you the one that gives sight. Let me show you the bread of life. Let me show you the one that will give you a living water where you'll never thirst again. Mercy is required. Bartimaeus was in dire need of it, and so are you and I. Friend, don't you ever think for a moment that you can live independent of the mercy of God. Don't you think that you can stick your thumb in God's face? Don't you think that you've got this thing called life made and cracked without him? Because you don't, and I don't either. Number one, mercy required. Number two, I want you to see mercy recognized. This is in verse number 47, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, He began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Number one, Bartimaeus, he may have been blind, but he recognized Jesus' person. He said, Jesus, by the way, isn't that the sweetest name we know? Isn't that the name above all names? Isn't there something about that name? The word Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. It's the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Jehoshua. And this man Bartimaeus, he might not have been able to see a whole lot physically, but when he heard Jesus was in town, that got his attention. He recognized the person of Christ, the Savior, the Deliverer. But number two, he recognized the power of Christ. The Bible says, Jesus thou son of David, Have mercy on me. Why is the fact that Christ is the son of David important? See, God the father of Jehovah made a covenant with David. We call it the Davidic covenant. And in that covenant, God promised David that there would never a man fail to sit on the throne of Israel from his lineage. Do you know who ultimately fulfills that promise? Jesus Christ. The preacher stole a little bit of my message tonight when he said, one day he's going to rule and reign forever. He's going to rule and reign for this earth for a thousand years and then after that for all of eternity as king, as the son of David. Friend, I want to tell you something tonight. You can't find mercy from a priest. You can't find mercy from your pastor. You can't find mercy, spiritual mercy, from the evangelist. The Bible tells us in Timothy that there is one mediator between God and man, and it's the man in Christ Jesus. He's the only go-between between God the Father and you and me. The Bible says in John 3, he that believeth is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he's not believeth on the unbegotten Son of God. What does that mean? It means that outside of Christ, there's a wall between us and God the Father. And there's no way under, there's no way around it. The only way is through it, through the blood of Jesus. And you can't get that wall down. That partition will be there forever outside of Christ. So we don't find our mercy, our forgiveness from another man. It's from Jesus himself. We've seen mercy required. We've seen mercy recognized. Number three, I want you to see mercy requested. He says in verse 47, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Number one, it was a personal request. He didn't ask for mercy for the world. He didn't ask for mercy for Jericho or for his family. He said, Lord, have mercy on me. Friend, the distance between hell and heaven is dependent upon your personalization of the mercy of God. It's not just that Jesus died for the world, he died for you. And John 1.12 says this, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. You must personally recognize that Jesus' mercy is applied to you, that you personally are not gonna get what you deserve. Barnabas was blind, he was a beggar, he couldn't see anything. He had nothing to offer, but he said, Lord, will you have kindness? Will you have compassion on me? Number one, it was a personal request, but number two, it was a persistent request. The Bible says he cried out, people, shh. You're making a scene, man. You're ruffling feathers. You're not following proper decorum. He didn't care. Can I tell you about the best beating I ever got in my life? My sister and I were sitting in a parking lot in a car. My mom had to run to the store. She said, y'all sit here for a minute. I'll be right back. First mistake. My sister and I get along, but you know, like any other brother and sister, we still fight. And I don't know what she said. I have no idea. It was something smart, I guess. And all I did, I'm not recommending this, so don't throw me under the bridge. It was decades ago, okay? Decades ago. I reached over to my sister and I went, boop, and I hit her with the back of my hand. I didn't punch her. I just, well, it caught her just right. And the blood began to flow. And she began to, ah! Ah! And I begged her to be quiet, please. But she knew she had me. And she began to scream with all her might because she knew I was toast. Tried to wipe up the blood, looked for a napkin, couldn't find it. Trash bag, that'll work. No, just smeared it everywhere. What's wrong? My sister said, hey, hey, and we got beaten with a flip-flop when I got back to my grandmother's house. I don't remember the beating, but I do remember that my sister cried the louder, the louder, the louder, and she didn't care who heard. You know what, friends? If you need mercy of God tonight, it ought not to matter who knows about it. If you need the mercy of God, don't you die and go to hell because somebody else thinks you're right and good with God. No one or nothing in this world is worth dying and going to hell. Well, Brother Barry, I'm a Christian, and if I come forward in a service and I repent of a sin in my life, people won't think I am what I am. Friends, can I tell you something? It doesn't matter what people think you are. It's what God knows you are. We live in a world today where we're more concerned with our reputation than we are our character. Reputation is what people think you are. Character is what God knows you are. And what's more important to us, our pride, our ego, or getting right with God so that we can be used by Him, and so that here at the church, revival can come. We see the revival. We see that it was a persistent request. He cried out even when other people told him to close his mouth. Mercy required. Mercy recognized. Mercy requested. Now, the next thing I want you to see is mercy's response. Verse 49, and Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying to him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Number one, he heard the man. Friends, aren't you glad that Jesus is never too busy? If you're a believer here tonight and you've got something in your heart and life that needs to be confessed and forsaken, do you know that God will hear you right now? You don't even have to wait till the invitation. Lord, I've been bitter. Lord, I've had an unforgiving spirit. Lord, I've had an unmerciful spirit. Lord, I've been angry. Father, I've been apathetic. Lord, I've been using language I shouldn't use. Whatever it is, you confess it to God right now and he'll forgive it and he won't turn a deaf ear. If we confess our sins, 1 John 1, 9 says, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By the way, that verse wasn't written to lost people. It was written to Christians. It's not about salvation, it's about restoring fellowship with God, getting that sin under the blood. Proverbs 28 says this, whoso, whoever hides his cover of his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh, listen to this, shall find mercy. Is there something between you and the Lord tonight? If you'll call to the Lord, he will hear you. Now listen to this. If you're here, you say, Brother Barry, you don't know what skeletons are in my closet. Can I respectfully say to you, you don't know what's in mine. Hey, how many of you tonight would love it if we could plug up a device, we'll pull that screen down, and we'll plug up a little electric nodes to your body, and we'll have a presentation of everything that's entered your mind today. Anybody want to sign up for that? I don't see a big line forming for that. Friend, it doesn't matter what you've done. God will forgive you. The mercy of God is bigger than what you've done. If you're here tonight and you're not saved, maybe the devil's been whispering in your ear, you gotta clean up your act. You're too dirty to get saved. Come to church for a year, get involved, and then, listen, friend, you cannot clean up your act. You realize you're a sinner, you receive Christ, and he will cleanse you. Friends, if Adolf Hitler had a drop to his knees and said, I repent, Jesus is Lord, before he blew his brains into eternity, Jesus Christ would have saved his soul. And if you don't believe that, your theology is wrong. Saddam Hussein, before that noose came over his neck for wonderful, horrible crimes of genocide against his own people, had he said, I renounce Allah and I receive Jesus by faith, then Christ would have saved him right before he went into eternity. Same way that he saved me and you. Amen, completely. Hey, we've seen mercy's requirement. We've seen mercy's, mercy recognized, mercy requested, mercy's response. He heard the man, but number two, he healed the man. Verse 52, and Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Now friend, if you walk away from this story thinking the only thing that Bartimaeus got at this moment in time was his physical sight, then pardon the pun, that's a short-sighted way of looking at the story. Jesus said, you're whole. Your faith has made you whole. Christ, when he healed somebody, it wasn't just for the purpose of healing them physically. He wanted them to be healed spiritually, too. Can I remind us in our missionary efforts That it's wonderful when we go and we clothe people and we provide medical care and we provide housing and food and fresh water. Those are wonderful, pure, noble endeavors, amen? But if they're not all for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus, they're a waste of time. And what good is a man if he's got eagle-eye vision physically, but he can't see anything spiritually? And this man was made whole. He became a believer. Faith alone. Seen mercy required, mercy recognized, mercy requested, mercy's response. Now in closing, I want you to see this. Look at mercy's result. Verse 52, and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. And this man had a new perception. He could see now. And when you get saved, you've got a new perceptional life Now you're viewing life through the lens of the Word of God. We call it today a Christian worldview where we see the world a little bit differently than the law sees it. And thank God for that discernment that only God can give. You ought to thank God when you have it. He had a new perception. But number two, listen to this. He had a new purpose. It says that he followed Jesus in the way. Christ gave him everything. And now he wanted to give him everything. Friends, if you're like me, you struggle with what I'm about to say, and here's where we're gonna mash some toes tonight, all right? Go ahead and stick them out. I need Christ's mercy by the bucketfuls. But very often I extend it by the thimbleful. We think we're good people until we stand in line at Walmart. Amen. If you can find a register open, operated by a real life human being. Person cuts us off on the road. I was driving down here tonight, I got behind slowly McSlow pants. I mean, he was slower than molasses in the desert. I don't know what he was doing. He was out for a Sunday drive on Monday. Getting irritated in my spirit, irritated. Man, we ask God to forgive us multiple times a day, don't we? I do. I do. But yet so often, we don't extend it to other people. The Bible talks about blessed and merciful. We're supposed to extend that mercy to others and be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even if God, for Christ's sake, Maybe the world needs to see us a little more patient, a little more forgiving, a little more long-suffering, a little more compassionate. By the way, not whipping it up in our flesh, but allowing Jesus Christ, the mercy of Christ, as we walk in the Spirit and we are led by Him with what we see and do and hear and go and say, as we allow Him to lead us through His Word, then that mercy is produced in us and through us. Not something you can try for yourself. It's got to come through Christ. Man, the mercy of God is marvelous, isn't it? Bartimaeus received it. You and I received it. Let's go and give it to a world that desperately needs it. Amen? Pray with us. Thank you for your attention tonight and the way you've listened and followed along in your Bible. Appreciate that. Wonderful story. Sometimes if we're not careful, we take these gospel accounts, these stories, and we kind of relegate them to Sunday school material for children sometimes. That ought not to be the case. They're applicable for everyone. And they're timeless, and they're true, and they're powerful. And so I wonder tonight with heads bowed and eyes closed, will there be somebody in our service tonight on Monday night that would say, Brother Barry, I need the mercy of God in this matter of salvation. I don't know that I'm a child of God. I don't know that I'm born again. If I die tonight, I don't have Bible assurance that the mercy of God's been applied to my I don't know there's been a time where I repented of my sin and received Jesus by faith, believing that he died and was buried and rose again for me. But I am concerned about it. I'm burdened about it. It concerns me. It bothers me. I want you to pray for me. If you're here tonight and you're not sure that you're a born-again believer, will you raise your hand so we can pray for you? We won't embarrass you or call you out, but we'd like to pray for you. Brother Barry, pray for me. I'm not sure I'm a Christian. Even if you didn't raise your hand, if you think on it later on and you decide you want someone to talk to somebody, we can take a lady with a lady and a man with a man and show you how you can be sure and see it from your own Bible with your own eyes, how to be sure of a home in heaven. Here's my next question. Haven't seen Brother Barry. I'm a believer, no doubt about it. I settled it a long time ago. But I'll tell you what, of late, I've been straying from the Lord. There are some things in my life that should not be there, and I need God's mercy tonight. I need to confess that and forsake it before Him. He knows what it is. Maybe it's a bad attitude. Maybe it's bad actions. I don't know. Maybe it's not doing something you should be doing. Whatever it is, God laid it on your heart. The Holy Spirit convicted you of it, and you want to do business with God tonight, get it under the blood, and claim His mercy in that area. If that's you, would you raise your hand? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir Hey friends, there's an altar right here. You can come and do business with God as the pianist begins to play continues to play You can also do business with him where you sit Wherever it is, whatever you do. I challenge you don't put it off Say the same thing about that sin that he says don't just say Lord forgive me for my sins today That's not biblical confession It means to agree with God, tell God what you've done. Yes, he already knows it, but that's what he expects from us. With a hard attitude if you don't want to do it anymore. If you do, he'll forgive you, but your hard attitude is I want to quit doing it. And then you accept the forgiveness that he so graciously offers and promises. Will you do that tonight? Will you take a moment to do business with him? As a matter of fact, before I say anything else, let's take a moment and do business with the Lord. Next question is this, how many would say, Brother Barry, God spoke to my heart. I've not been very merciful lately. I've had an unforgiving, impatient, irritable, maybe even angry spirit. I've not been extending the kindness and compassion of Christ to others that I expect God to give me. And the Lord convicted me of that tonight, and I want to repent of that. and seek his strength to change that in my life. If that's you, would you raise your hand? Amen. Amen. Yes. Yes. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am. Anybody else? Here's a wonderful thing. Whatever it is, God will forgive you. We're all on the same boat. We all deal with the same struggles and temptations. Here's my last question. How many would say, Brother Barry, I want to thank God by raising my hand for his mercy in my life and how he's been so good to me. If that's you, would you raise your hand? Father, you've seen these hands. More importantly, you know the hearts behind them. Be with Pastor Earl now as he comes and concludes the invitation as you lead him.