Ecclesiastes chapter 12. And this morning, I want to preach on a very simple, basic subject. What is the true meaning of life? And I'm just joking there a little bit, because that's a subject that the philosophers and the ancient thinkers of our history have debated for thousands of years. And sometimes they come to pretty interesting conclusions like there is no meaning. And they kind of go around in circles with what they believe about life and its purpose. But I want us to be challenged this morning that God tells us what our purpose is. And it makes sense when we understand what the Bible and what Christianity teaches about life. So let's start here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Verse number 13. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13, the Bible says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Let's pray and ask for God's help. Lord, would you bless as we study your word, study this important topic. We pray that your Holy Spirit would minister in all of our hearts. Would you speak through me, Lord, and empower me, enable me to speak with boldness, with power, with clarity. What I pray that your people will be receptive to your truth. May we respond and be willing to obey all that you show us for your honor, for your glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. We have been going through a series, several important topics that I've entitled. What is truth this morning? I want us to consider what is the true meaning of life. Imagine with me for just a moment that you were thrown into the middle of a game. And in that game, you had no idea when it began. You had no idea when it would finish. In that game, you have no idea what the objective of the game is. You have no idea what the rules of the game are. Do you think you could engage in that game in a meaningful way and enjoy that game? No, it would be pretty frustrating. It would be pretty annoying. It would be pretty miserable. And so that's just for a simple, silly game. Now let's take some of those same principles and apply them to life. the questions of life, why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? You see, if you don't have the answers to those questions, you will never be able to engage in life in a meaningful way. Life will be something that's arduous, that's miserable, that, like Solomon says over and over again in Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Life will just seem empty. unless you have the answers to those key questions. Man is on a purpose, is on a quest, I should say, to find true purpose to help him make sense out of life. And the book of Ecclesiastes is a story of King Solomon, who was on such a quest. And you study this book out, especially in chapters one and two, he was a king who had everything. He had worldly entertainment, He had money and wealth and fame. He had many earthly accomplishments. Under his rule, Israel was at its peak. It had no enemies. All the enemies were defeated. The kingdom was growing. We know he had women. The Bible says 1,000 of them at that. And so he had everything you could say a worldly man could want. But yet over and over again in the book of Ecclesiastes, he says life is empty. Life is meaningless. And we can bring it a little bit up to date with modern eras. Look at the celebrities of our day, the politicians of our day, and how many of them are committing suicide. They can't stay married. They're not raising their families right. Their life is in disarray and they have everything, humanly speaking, you could want. So we have to consider what is the true meaning of life. Solomon tells us earthly pleasures don't satisfy. Solomon examines life, and he sees all of the circumstances of life happening that appear to be random. And he says it's frustrating that life seems so random, like there's no purpose to it all. And then he talks about how he looks in the world, and he sees injustice, and he sees suffering, and oftentimes for the righteous people. And the premise that Solomon writes from is if you leave God out, Life is meaningless. Life is random. There's no rhyme or reason to it all. Life doesn't make sense. The reality is when you add God into life, everything does make sense. That God does have a purpose. Nothing is by accident. Nothing is random. God has a purpose and a plan for all that he does. And so the question of the true meaning of life leads us to a second question. Who gets to decide how I live my life? Who gets to decide how I live my life? The humanist would answer and say, well, me. I decide what I do with my life. That's what the humanist or the atheist would say. And you know what? Many Christians who profess to be Christians, who profess to love God, they live as practical humanists or practical atheists. Why? Because they do whatever they want to do. They don't do what God wants them to do. You know what I'm talking about? What do you want to do? Whatever I feel like doing. Whatever makes me happy. Whatever brings me joy. And we're living in a humanistic way. Humanism is the idea that the human mind is the ultimate standard. Everything starts and ends with man himself. It really is a religion. And the deity is man himself. And a humanist is simply someone who lives his life without God. So a humanist could be a good person, he works a job, supports his family, mows his lawn, he votes in the election, he waits a week to find out who actually wins, right? A humanist is someone who goes about daily life, doing all the things you're supposed to do, but he leaves God out of it all. And at the end of it all, his life is meaningless, because he wasn't living for his true purpose. Humanism, fails because we as humans are failures. We are broken and sinful people living in a broken and sinful world. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter three, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If you keep your place here in Ecclesiastes and go with me to Galatians chapter five. Let's go to Galatians chapter five and verse 19. Why can't I just do whatever I want to do? Why can't I be my own boss? Why can't I be just a humanist? It all starts with me. Well, here's why. Galatians 5, verse 19 says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Here we have it. This is just a short list, but it's a list that shows the true nature of our flesh, that if we just go by our flesh, this will be the result. brokenness, sin, wickedness. And so humanism is a complete failure as an ideology. You see, a man can work hard and get a good job, climb the ladder of success. But then what happens when the problems come in his life? What happens when he doesn't get that big promotion he thought he deserved? And what happens? He gets angry. Perhaps he takes it out on his family, his wife and kids. His wife and kids start to, in turn, resent him. And in the home, there's friction, there's disrespect, there's lack of love. And that man turns to things to try to bring him peace, to try to help him get through all the stress in his life. So he turns to all the vices, like gambling, or alcohol, or even pornography, turning to all these things to try to satiate the needs of his soul. But you know what? For a little while, they seem to work. The alcohol seems to help. He gets some pleasure from the pornography. He gets some pleasure from the gambling. For a little while, it seems like life is good. But you know what will happen eventually? It dries up. That's just on the surface. There's still some deep needs of our soul that are not being met. When you leave God out, all you're left with is emptiness and misery. You see, for the Christian, we can have problems in our life too. We can have problems at work, problems at home, problems in our life, but we can turn to God. We can turn to God's word to help us make sense of it all. To guide us and navigate us through the ebbs and flows of life. See, we realize the world does not give us true satisfaction and meaning, but God does. So the essential questions that man has, where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Only the Christian faith can answer those questions adequately to meet the needs of our soul. So I want us to consider first this morning, number one, our origin. Where did I come from? Well, here in Ecclesiastes 12, verse one, the Bible says, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. The Bible is letting us know that we are here on purpose, not by accident. That you are not an accident, you are here on purpose because God created you. We have a creator God that spoke the world into existence. So the Bible says. And so we have people that will say, well, I believe in the Big Bang Theory. I'm going to tell you this morning, that's a foolish theory. It's a foolish thing to believe that an explosion can create order and life and precision in our universe. A few months ago, maybe we all saw on the news the footage of that huge explosion in Lebanon. You saw the video footage of that tremendous explosion. You know what we saw after that explosion? Devastation, chaos, loss of life, destruction. It was just chaos, disorder. That's what you get from explosions. So the idea that a precise, intricate, orderly universe came from a huge explosion is a fairy tale. I'm just going to be honest with you that evolution really is a fairy tale for atheists to sleep comfortably at night. All it is is a way for people to say, there is no God. I don't have to follow your God. I don't have to obey your God. And so I'm going to create this system that explains the origin of life. But you see, here's where humanism, atheism, or evolutionism, where it falls short. That if we are just a bunch of random molecules walking around, that's what they say we are, how do you explain things like love? How do you explain things like morality or evil or justice? Let me tell you something. When you read in the newspaper, you read about pedophilia and rape, you read about child abuse, you read about murder, when you read about terrorism and you read about awful things, doesn't your heart burn? You say, that's wrong. It's morally evil. When you read about injustice and people who are suffering, your heart burns because it's not just random molecules. It's morally wrong. Why does our heart burn? Because we're made in the image of God and his heart burns the same. We are created beings made in the image of a holy God, a righteous God. And he's written his law in our hearts, the Bible says. So the idea that we're just random molecules walking around, well then why have laws? Why have right and wrong? Why have evil if everything is just random? No, the reality is we are a living soul created by God himself. And that's why we can explain things like love, justice, morality, evil. And we cannot just say these are just made up ideals. These are longings in our heart that God put there that point back to a creator God. The reason why many people resist the fact that we are created by God is because man does not want to be accountable to God. You see what Solomon says here. Remember now that creator in the days of our youth, he's saying, give God the priority, give God the preeminence. In other words, for the believer, God always comes first. God is number one in our lives. He has the preeminence. Everything begins with God. I didn't make myself. God made me. And that means I'm going to have to answer to God someday. And so the reality is we have a creator God who's created a precise, intricate, beautiful universe, and all of it points back to his majesty, his wisdom, his glory. Where did I come from? You're not just random molecules. You're not just descendants from a monkey. You know, we tell young children that, and it's no wonder why they grow up and they live a lawless life with no respect for authority. No wonder they live an immoral life, because who's to say what's right and what's wrong? We're just molecules, we're just apes, evolved. You see how foolish and how wicked that teaching is? No, we must teach our children that, listen, God took time to make you exactly how he wanted to make you, on purpose. You were created on purpose. And that brings me to my second point. Not only our origin, but what is our purpose? Where do we come from, but why are we here? And our purpose is certainly linked to our origin. In other words, why did God make us? Did you ever stop and think about that? Why did God go through all the process to create man? You know, God was God all by himself. He doesn't need us. We need him, but he doesn't need us. He's holy, he's righteous, he's loving, he's just, all by himself. He's glorious, he's almighty, all by himself. But why did God create us? Solomon tells us here in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Solomon is saying that we have a purpose to fear God and to obey God. Go with me to Revelation chapter four. Revelation chapter four and verse 11. The Bible says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Listen to me this morning. There is divine intention behind the universe. We have to ask this question. Is the universe an accident? Is my life an accident or is there divine purpose and intention? There's divine intention behind the universe and behind your life. Why are you born in this generation, in this lifetime? Why are you born in this nation? Why are you in that family? Why do you have that job and work with those people? Why do you live on that street? These are not just accidents. There's divine purpose and intention. Our sovereign God. And the Bible is explaining to us that our divine purpose is to bring Him pleasure. For thy pleasure they are and were created. So our purpose is to know God and to glorify God. Now, I wanna be transparent with you this morning. As a young person, I was taught these same truths and studied these truths out. I would read these scriptures. Why am I created? Why am I here? And I would read this verse and I would kinda say, that's it. forgive me if I'm not as spiritual as you, but I thought, you know what, that seems like, my flesh isn't really excited by that. My flesh doesn't, it doesn't thrill my flesh, it doesn't excite me, that seems rather dull perhaps. But you know, as I've grown in my faith, I realized the depth and weight of this truth, that I was created with a purpose to bring God glory. I realized the fact that I'm just a ball of dirt that God has saw fit to pour out his love, mercy, and affection upon. That I have the wonderful privilege to get to know this Creator God, this incredibly wise, this incredibly loving, this incredibly amazing God that spoke the world into existence. I have the privilege of discovering that God in my lifetime. I get to learn about Him as I look at the creation, and I learn about Him as I read from His Word. I read about his love for me, how he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins. I read about my own wickedness and how I deserve hell, and God ought not have anything to do with me, but he loves me anyway. And I read about how God not only wants to save me, but he has a purpose for this ball of clay that I am, this divine purpose, this divine tool in his hand, that I can bring him glory, that I can bring him peace and joy and satisfaction with my life. You see, it's not just a dull thing that you get to be used by this amazing God to bring him pleasure. Never underestimate that. Never underestimate the fact that we get to bring the God of the universe pleasure. There's no greater satisfaction for your soul or mine than to bring God pleasure, to do what we were created to do. You know, so many people, they're living their lives not doing what they were created to do. And so they live in frustration. They think they were created just to make a lot of money. And maybe they do make a lot of money, maybe they don't. But you know what happens when they die? You can't take it with you, can you? Some people think life is just all about having a lot of friends and relationships. And those of you who can testify, sometimes those friends and relationships don't even last, do they? And we're left empty and disappointed. I want us to ask ourselves this question this morning. What is the most important thing in your life? You don't need to answer out loud, but think in your heart. What is the most important thing in your life? Perhaps we might think of very good things. the work that we do, our families, and other things in our hearts. But I want to ask you this second question. Can that something be lost? Can that something be taken away? And if it can, aren't we just setting ourselves up for disappointment? Aren't we setting ourselves up for failure, for misery, if the most important thing in our life can be taken away and removed? You see, this is the reason why our purpose for all that we do has to be grounded in pleasing and glorifying God. When you live for God, when you live for him and his glory, that can never be defeated, that can never be destroyed, and that can never be lost. Listen, earthly relationships can and will be lost. Listen, the politics of this world that can and will be lost and defeated. Listen, all the money in this world can and will be lost. What will be the most important thing in your life? Will you set yourself up for failure, for disappointment, for emptiness, or for true joy by following the Lord? See, true joy in my soul always comes when I know I'm in the center of God's will. You know, everything can be happening. There could be a pandemic, there could be sickness, there could be pain, there could be a financial crisis, there could be emotional hurt and pain, there could be situations in my family that hurt me, that are traumatizing, but when I know that I'm doing the will of God and I'm bringing Him pleasure, I am satisfied. And in my soul, there's great delight. And nothing could ever change that. I'm not talking about your life is always going to be easy and no problems. I'm talking about making the centerpiece of your life God and nothing else. Because anything else will be an idol and will leave you defeated. It will disappoint you at some point. So what is my purpose to do the will of God? OK, that's easy. So then the next question is, Christian, are you doing the will of God? Are you doing exactly what God wants you to do? Are you living out what God created you to do? Because if not, you're not living out your purpose, you will be empty, you'll never have true joy, and you won't bring pleasure to God. The things that give life meaning are grounded in God, are grounded in doing his will, So we have to realize that our purpose is linked to our creation. For thy pleasure they are and were created, the Bible says. Now I wanna also challenge you with this thought that you can never fulfill your purpose unless you are first redeemed. We were created to have physical life in this world, but also to have spiritual life with God, eternal life. We were created to be redeemed people, to be saved and delivered. We all know that as part of God's creation, the fall of man, sin and death passed upon all men, the Bible says. We're living in a broken world, a sinful world, and we are broken and sinful people. And we are designed not just for this life, but for eternal life. But how can we have eternal life if we're sinful, if we're broken? I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter two. And I want you to realize that many people will agree with us as Christians that, man, our world is broken and we are broken, but they will fall short of the real solution. And so man will turn to philosophy and psychology and self-help and self-improvement and say, well, I'll just tweak something here. I'll tweak something there. I'll have some chicken soup for the soul here and Dr. Phil here, and I'll help myself to live my best life now. and we miss really our true purpose, that we were created to be redeemed by God. You see, we can never just repair ourselves or tweak ourselves to being better people. We need to be born again. Look at Ephesians chapter two, verse one. The Bible says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. You see, the Bible says that the way to salvation is not modification, it's transformation. God is in the business of taking dead things and raising them to life. So we are dead in our sins with no hope, but he gives us new life. Let's keep reading verse two, where in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan. the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Do you see that? Apart from Christ, we are following the devil, and we're dead in our sins, headed for hell. How can we fulfill our purpose doing that? Let's keep reading. Verse five, verse four rather. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved and have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come you might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, the gospel is clear that we are dead in our sins, but Jesus Christ and his grace came to make us alive again. We need eternal life. How do we get eternal life? By the grace of God. This morning, salvation and redemption does not come from getting baptized, going to church, doing good works, because you're dead in your sins. How can you be risen to new life? You need Jesus Christ. You need the grace of God. Say, preacher, how can I receive God's grace? The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. When you put your trust in Christ and what he did for you at Calvary, You extend out that arm of faith to receive that wonderful provision. Your sin's forgiven, eternal life, born again. That's what the gospel does. And so the gospel teaches us that we were created to have spiritual life and fellowship with God. God made us a body, soul, and spirit. And this earthly body is perishing. Some of you older folks, you can say amen right there. Eyes get a little dim, hearing gets a little dull, back gets a little tight as you get older, right? We're constantly remembering that this earthly body is perishing. Doesn't that point to the fact we were created for so much more? For so much more than just this earthly life. You are an eternal soul. created to have redemption, eternal life in heaven forever with your Lord. Have you received that eternal life? I'm not asking have you come to church or have you been baptized or have you kept the golden rule? I'm asking have you received God's grace to fulfill your purpose to be redeemed and forgiven and have eternal life? The gospel puts us in line with our purpose. And we begin to realize as Christians that we were created more than just for physical survival in this life. We were created for eternal life. And I think this year with this pandemic, we need to learn this lesson now more than ever. Is our life gonna be about just preserving our earthly existence? Or will it be about living for that which is eternal? That which brings glory to God. And as Christians, we have to ask ourselves a question. What's the use of preserving a life without meaning? What's the use of taking great pains to preserve and survive without living for the things that actually give life meaning? Like serving the Lord and obeying the Lord, getting the gospel out, supporting missionaries, being faithful to our true King. What's the purpose of trying and clamoring just to preserve a life devoid of God? I can't understand it. What makes life worth living is God and serving God. May we never forget that. And so in our attempt to save our lives, we have forgotten about what makes life worth living. And I believe we're not doing the will of God in many cases because of our fears. Our purpose, why am I here, is to bring God glory. But then thirdly, what is our destiny? Where am I going? Where am I going? Well, Solomon answers that question again back in Ecclesiastes 12. Let's go back there. And look at verse 14. Ecclesiastes 12, verse 14, he says, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The Bible says one day we will all stand before God. I'm not going to stand before you. You're not gonna stand before me. You're not gonna stand before your friends or your parents or your co-workers, your loved ones. We're all gonna stand before God. And you know what? There's no fooling God, is there? Or you can fool people. There's no fooling God. One day, we all have this appointment to stand before God, for it's appointed on a man once to die, and after this, the judgment. If you're saved, You'll stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of what you did with your Christian life. How did you serve the Lord with your life? If you're not saved, you're going to stand before the great white throne judgment where you're going to have to answer for every single sin in your life and be cast into the lake of fire forever. The Bible says we're going to stand before God. And the Bible says that we're going to spend eternity somewhere forever. We can spend eternity in heaven with the Lord or in hell being judged for our sins. Those are the only two options. There's no purgatory. There's no middle ground. There's no reincarnation. It's heaven or hell. And so the question is, do you know for sure where you're going when you leave this world? I'm not asking where you hope to go. I'm asking, do you know where you will spend your eternity? Oh, the gospel assures us that when we come to Christ, we receive eternal life. Oh, the Bible says that we can know that we have eternal life. These things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5, 13, we can know because of Christ that our home is in heaven. And so when we think about the fact that we're gonna stand before God, what Solomon is teaching us here, is that we have the privilege of existence before God, but we also have a responsibility in how we live our lives. And think about this, he says, with every work into judgment, with every secret thing, that means that everything that I do matters to God. Someone said this, there is and will be an eternal accounting for everything we do. This is the complete opposite of believing that all is vanity or meaningless. It means that everything has meaning and has importance, both for the present and for eternity. If God cares as much as this, nothing can be pointless. Doesn't the Apostle Paul tell us whether we eat or drink, do all for the glory of God? For the Christian, nothing is meaningless, nothing is pointless. Everything is an opportunity to obey God and bring glory to God. Are you living that way, Christian? Or have you been deceived to living just for your own self-gratification? Have you been deceived into living only for what the world is pushing you into its mold to live for, and you're just following the drum of this world and you're not following God's will? That's an empty way to live. Joshua 24. Joshua stood before the children of Israel, in verse 15, he said, choose you this day whom you will serve. And for us today, I want us to consider, will you serve yourself or will you serve God? And you have to decide that question. Will I serve myself? Maybe in the immediate, it might seem like there's a greater return there. If I serve myself, maybe I'll be happy, I'll get what I want out of life. That's a deception from the enemy. Because take it from Solomon. He had all the women, all the wealth, all the accomplishments, and his thesis statement was vanity of vanities. All is vanity. When you live your life for yourself, it's an empty way to live. There's no meaning, no value. And so he comes to this conclusion. This is a sermon in the book of Ecclesiastes. He says, listen to me, I tried everything and it doesn't work, but this is the conclusion of the whole matter in verse 13. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, to fear God and to follow God. This morning, who are you living for? Isaiah 28, verse 16 says, Therefore, thus say the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. When you decide to follow the Lord, you have a firm foundation, not only for this life, but for eternity as well. But some people don't make Jesus their foundation. And so listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 118 verse 22. He says the stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. You see, there's a story told when Solomon's Temple was being built. They didn't have the technology we have now to lay a foundation with concrete and all of that. They would literally carry up these huge, massive stones and lay them to form a foundation. And they had to have a cornerstone that would keep the whole thing in line. And the story is told that they found this massive stone, that they examined it, they looked at it, studied it, and decided this wasn't going to work. So they discarded it. But then as they continued building, they built the foundation. They looked. They said, this isn't going to work. This isn't good. The foundation is not steady. It's not level. And they realized the stone that they discarded was the very one they needed to be the foundation. I believe that's kind of like many people living today, in America especially. Oh, they know about Jesus. They know about the Lord, and they may even come across opportunities to serve the Lord, but they look at Christ and they examine Christ, and they say, you know what? I'm gonna live my life another way. And they discard that purpose of following Christ. And I believe when we come to the end of our lives, many people will feel great shame and disappointment. realizing they could have lived their true purpose with following Christ, but they live for the emptiness and vanity of this world. What's it gonna be for you? Choose you this day, whom you will serve. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we're so grateful for your word and the challenges that it gives to us. Lord, would you help us to live a meaningful life that's grounded in you, and your purpose for us. You're our creator, you're our redeemer, you're our God, you give us purpose, but Lord, we need to trust you and obey you. Lord, forgive us for living for ourselves or trusting in ourselves or the things of this world. Lord, help us to get in line with doing your will. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, Christians are praying, Maybe you're here this morning and you're not even sure if you have eternal life. You can't be sure of your purpose in this life because you've never been redeemed. You've never received eternal life. You have some questions about that today. Maybe God's speaking to you. If that's you, we want to pray for you. How many would say, Pastor, please pray for me. I have some questions about eternal life. I'm not sure if I'm saved. Would you slip your hand up? We'll pray for you. See, I'm not sure if I'm saved. I wanna answer these questions about my eternity. Now's the time, don't put it off, don't delay. If God's speaking to you, you need to respond. How many of us as God's people this morning need to refocus our lives? We need to make Christ the center of our lives. Are you doing God's will? Are you submitting to him in every area? I'm gonna ask our pianist to play through a hymn of invitation and let's pray to him this morning. Let's confess our sin in this area that perhaps we've allowed ourselves to be deceived, to get off track, to live for something less than God himself. And this morning, can you worship and thank God for giving your life purpose and meaning? Oh, it's not because as Christians were proud because we have everything put together. It's simply because our hope is in the Lord. Oh, let's thank him and worship him this morning. You tell the Lord that you will live for Him and Him alone. Let's commit ourselves to that.