We've all had the experience. We walked into a room, they were already in the middle of a conversation, and we didn't quite understand exactly what they were talking about. Or maybe you've been in the middle of a conversation and someone else walked in the room and they totally misunderstood what was being said because they didn't hear it from the beginning. Imagine coming late to church, and catching the last half or the last third of a pastor's message. Well, that can be risky because if you didn't hear the first part of the sermon, you might draw a wrong conclusion. On the other hand, maybe all you needed to hear was the last part of the sermon. Well, what we're gonna do today is something like what I've just described. We're gonna break in on the middle of a conversation. We're gonna break in on the last third of a sermon. You see, in the last week of the Lord's life, he spent a lot of time in Jerusalem and had a lot of conversations that are recorded for us in the scripture with the religious leaders of the day. On Tuesday, he had an encounter with the religious leaders, and it began when they said to him, by what authority are you doing all of this? He had cleansed the temple, he was preaching, and they wanted to know what his authority was. In answering them, he told them, in essence, that He had the same authority that John the Baptist talked about him having. Namely, he was the Messiah. And then he told three parables. Those three parables are designed to answer the question, by what authority you were doing this? But as you look at those three parables carefully, you discover that something else is going on. He goes beyond. just talking about his authority. He talks about them, the religious leaders. Furthermore, those parables are just full of surprises. He not only talks about himself indirectly, talks about them more directly. He talks about other people that aren't even part and parcel of the conversation. Perhaps the greatest surprise of all is when we get to the last of those three parables. And there he is talking about people that aren't prepared when they enter the kingdom. So what we've done so far is look at the first parable and the second parable, and today we're gonna break in in the middle of this conversation. We're gonna catch the last half of the sermon, so to speak. But ah, maybe it's just the last half of this conversation, this sermon, that we really need to hear. There's a lesson in this one that we all need to learn. So with that in mind, will you turn with me to Matthew chapter 22, keeping in mind that this is the last third of a sermon Jesus preached to the religious leaders in Jerusalem on the last Tuesday he was on the earth. Matthew chapter 22. And I am gonna begin reading with verse one. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son. and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready, come to the wedding. But they made light of it, and went their way, one on his own farm and another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious and he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding is ready. But those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite them to the wedding. So those servants went into the highways and gathered together all they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came to see the guests, he saw a man there. who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. the rather simple story, in a sense, and yet there are a lot of nuances in this story. I'd like to suggest that there are two basic parts to it. First, there is the whole issue of guests being invited to a wedding feast. And then the second part of this parable has to do with people who eventually came to the banquet, but were not properly dressed. So we're gonna talk about the wedding feast, and then we're gonna talk about the wedding garment. Let's begin with the wedding feast. Verse two says, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come. Obviously, this is a parable. And the various people in the parable are symbolic of someone else. Most are agreed that the king in this part is a symbol or a representation of God the Father, who is going to have a wedding for his son. He sends the servants out to invite people to the wedding banquet. And that is often suggested. It is often suggested that that's a symbol of the prophets in the Old Testament who went out and invited the people to God's future kingdom. And of course, the people they invited was the nation of Israel. So that in this passage, the banquet, the wedding feast, is a picture of the future kingdom. And that is an apt picture, is it not? What happens at a wedding banquet? What happens at a wedding feast? Well, it is a time of celebration. It is a time of great joy. And that is the picture of what it will be like when the Lord comes back and sets up his kingdom. Martin Luther, commenting on this, said, the kingdom is not a time of toil or a time of sorrow, but a time of holiday and a time of joy in which we make ourselves sing, play, dance, eat, drink, and are glad and have a good time. Else, it would not be a wedding feast if people would be working, mourning, or crying Therefore Christ calls his Christianity and the gospel by the name of the highest joy on earth, namely by the name of a wedding feast. So the picture being painted by this parable is that the Lord is throwing a wedding feast, a time of celebration and joy, and he sends out servants to invite people to come. But notice, what is said at the end of verse three. But they were not willing to come. In the history of Israel, there were often times of unwillingness to follow the Lord. They were rebels. And so in the parable, the Lord simply says they were invited, but they weren't willing to come. So, plan B, verse four. Again, he sent out other servants saying, tell those who are invited, notice they've already been invited. See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fatted calf are killed and all things are ready. Come to the wedding. Now I need to explain. that this is sort of an oriental custom. They didn't have refrigeration. They didn't have telephones or cell phones or computers. They couldn't email. So the nature of having a banquet was something like this. They started out with two days before the banquet, they would fan out into the neighborhood and say, hey, we're having a party, you're invited. And at that point, they would say, OK, I can come. Then the day of the banquet, they sent another invitation out and said, OK, it is now ready. So come. And that's what he's talking about in this verse. Verse four, again he sent out other servants, telling them who are invited. They have already been invited. They were invited two days before. Now all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast. Now look at verse five. But they made light of it and went their way, one to his own farm and another to his business. And furthermore, the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. Now, some have suggested, and I think rightly so, that this perhaps is a picture of the fact that God invited Israel to come to the kingdom in the Old Testament, and they were unwilling. And then, when it was ready, remember John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of God is At hand, Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. So when it is ready, they sent the servants back out and said, okay, it's ready, now come. And this time, they made excuses. Well, they did more than that, they made light of it. And they went their way, one to his own farm and another to his business. And then on top of that, they seized the servants Some have suggested that's a reference to John the Baptist and Jesus himself, and they kill them. In other words, they said, look, we are going to reject what you are offering to us. So Jesus and John the Baptist came preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and they not only said, no, we want no part of that, they killed Those messengers besides, John the Baptist was beheaded and Jesus is about to be crucified. So there is in this passage a progression. First they are unwilling, then they make light, and finally they kill the servants that have come to tell them about the banquet. The result of this is in verse seven. And when the king heard about it, he was furious, and he sent out armies and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Virtually all who come to this passage see in it a reference to the fact that the Jews of Jesus' day, especially the religious leaders, rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and the result was they perished. and their city, Jerusalem, was destroyed. And almost everybody sees in this a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans. So they rejected the offer to come to the kingdom in this passage, pictured as a wedding feast. And as a result of their rejection, They were destroyed, and so was their city. Now look at verse eight. Then he said to those servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite them to the wedding. So the servants went out into the highways and gathered together all that were found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. All right, here's the picture. They have rejected the invitation to come to the kingdom. They are destroyed, and the invitation is given to somebody else. Now I told you this is the last half, or the last third, actually, of a sermon. Jesus told three parables. Prior to this, he said, The kingdom is going to be taken from you and given to another nation. And now in this last parable in this particular discourse, he pictures that in that the first people who were invited are rejected. And when they rejected, they were destroyed. And now the invitation goes to somebody else. Go into the highways. Go outside the city and invite people, an obvious reference to the Gentiles. Let me make just one other observation about the wedding feast. Look at this verse again. Matthew chapter 22, verse 10 says, go out into the highways, that is outside the city, and find both bad and good. What's that a reference to? Is he saying go invite the moral and the immoral. In a previous parable in this same discourse, he said, it's going to be taken from you, and it's going to be given to the tax collectors and harlots. Remember that? The bad and the good. I don't think we normally think in terms like this. We tend to think that sinners are called. to come to Christ, and all are sinners, and that's true. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that all sinners are as big as sinners as some other sinners, you know what I mean? There are moral people, they need to come to the kingdom too. There are immoral people, they need to come to the kingdom too. One fellow suggests that the ministry of Philip the Evangelist is an illustration of this. We have two episodes in the life of Philip the Evangelist. In one, he goes down to Caesarea and he preaches the gospel to Simon the sorcerer. When he gets all done with that, the Lord takes him down to the desert and he ministers to the Ethiopian eunuch as he was reading the scriptures. One fellow suggested that here Philip ministers to somebody who is steeped in sorcery. and the next time he's ministering to somebody who is steeped in the scripture, the bad and the good. All are called to the kingdom, so that from a human point of view, some are morally good, they still need to come to Christ, and some are morally bad, they still need to come. So this wedding feast is a picture of being called to the kingdom, called to salvation. Remember, Jesus told Nicodemus, except the man is born again, he cannot see, later he said, enter the kingdom of God. So this first part of the passage is a picture of simply being invited to the kingdom. Now, let me pause and make a suggestion. What was the price of the ticket to get into the kingdom? Nothing. The king provided the banquet, went to the highways and said, hey guys, free lunch. And that part I think is fascinating because the Bible clearly teaches that salvation is free. It says very clearly in Romans 6, 23, the gift of God is eternal life. That doesn't mean somebody doesn't have to pay for it. Jesus paid for it when he died for our sins, rose from the dead, but it's free to us. All we have to do is accept it, trust in Christ and his death as the payment of our sin, and we are freely Salvation matter of fact that word is used in Romans chapter 3. We are justified freely by his grace There's an old proverb that says there's no such thing as a free lunch Recently I was in a restaurant and there was a little fishbowl beside the cash register and it had a little sign on it that says For a free Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? For a free lunch, put your business card in here. You ever seen one of those? You put your business card in there, you draw it out, and you get a free lunch. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? This passage talks about a free lunch. There are free lunches. They use it as a means of advertising. And there is free salvation. Now, I said this passage was divided into two parts. There's the wedding feast that I think illustrates the freeness of the gospel, but the invitation to come to the kingdom. The second part deals with the wedding garment. As they say, the plot thickens. Let's pick up the story. It says, verse 10, Well, the wedding hall was full, verse 11. When the king came in to see the guest, he saw a man who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how'd you get in there without a wedding garment? And the guy without the wedding garment was speechless. and the king said to the servants, find him hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called and few are chosen. All right, the scene shifts from the feast to being properly attired. One guest doesn't have on a wedding garment. Now, the first question is, who is this guest? I suspect that the vast majority of Bible teachers would say that this guest is an unbeliever. He was not clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and he was cast out of the kingdom and thrown into hell. Described here is outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, I'm about to suggest that there's another possible way to interpret this. And I'm going to warn you, this is the minority report. Virtually everything I say, I back up with the scripture, and I'm in good company. Not everybody agrees on interpretations of scripture, but there's a large, you know, the mainstream of evangelicalism would say, yeah, that's an acceptable theory. I'm now about to give you something that's the minority report, all right? There are many people who believe this, but the majority don't. I'm gonna be real radical and suggest that this guest is a believer. Say, how did you arrive at that conclusion? Well, let me just tell you, it wasn't easy. I heard this years ago and put it on the back shelf and said, someday, Lord willing, I'm gonna preach the gospel of Matthew, and when I get to this, I'll figure it out. Well, the time has come and I had to sit down and figure it out. The big problem is what do you do with this outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth? I'll get to that in a minute. First of all, let's just come to the passage like we would any passage. Now, you've heard people listening to me, they've heard me preach many times, and you know I'm a real stickler for just saying this is what this verse says, and this is what this verse says, and this is what this verse says, and keep it in context, right? That's my rule. All right, if you apply that to this passage, I think you're driven to the conclusion. that this fella is a believer. Number one, he accepted the invitation in contrast to those who did not accept the invitation. So clearly, he did something the unregenerate unbelievers didn't do. Secondly, he's at the banquet. What do you have to do? Now the banquet represents what? The kingdom. What do you have to do to get in the kingdom? Yeah. Except the man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So he's in. That means he believes. And if you go back and look at the other two parables, remember we're catching this conversation at the end, it clearly says, these believed, these didn't. But here's the clincher. Look at your Bible. This is very, very important. Look at verse 12. And he said to him, what'd he call him? Friend. Do you see that? Is this an enemy? No, it's a friend. So I have concluded that this is a friend. a believer. Some months ago when I was wrestling with this whole thing, Paul Forbat and I got into a conversation, and he was ahead of me on this one, and he concluded that it was a believer, and I said to him, well, what makes you so sure he's a believer? And he took me through some other passages, but his bottom line was this, he's a friend. And in other passages, He's an enemy, and the enemies are destroyed as in this passage. The enemies, they're not called that here, they are in Luke. In this passage, they're still destroyed and so is their city. So that's the enemies. The friend is just put in outer darkness for a while. We'll get to that in a minute. And I walked away from that conversation and I said, that's right, he called him friend, didn't he? I'm driven to the conclusion. I've been beat up by the facts of the text. I'm driven to the conclusion. The guy is a believer. All right, that's the first problem. Second problem, he doesn't have on a wedding garment. Now, the way that's usually interpreted is the wedding garment is a picture of the righteousness of Christ. When we trust Christ, we're clothed in his righteousness. and they didn't have a wedding garment, therefore he's not a believer. Well, let me challenge that interpretation as well. As a matter of fact, I would say this is not a picture of salvation. Let's just take the facts of the parable. In this case, and this was an Oriental custom, the king did not provide the wedding garment. For this to be a picture of salvation, the king would have had to provide the wedding garment. In Oriental custom, they did not. Moreover, it was the responsibility of each individual guest to provide his own wedding garment, which was really nothing more than a good set of clean clothes. but it was the guest responsibility to provide the clothes. That's very important. Now, if that's the case, what do the clothes represent? Well, it struck me that the idea of putting on clothes spiritually has to do with a believer living a righteous life. In the book of Ephesians, in the book of Colossians, as well as some other places, the imagery of putting on clothes is used of living a righteous, godly life. For example, in Colossians, Paul says, put off, and that Greek word is used of taking off your garment, a coat, put off things like wrath and anger and all those kinds of sins, and put on mercy and compassion and love, those kinds of things. So in symbolic fashion, this is saying that as you develop a righteous life, if you do what is right because it's right, and you develop Christ-likeness, you are weaving a garment that you will wear at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Does that sound far-fetched? Does that make sense? That I put you to sleep. All right, I want you to put your finger in Matthew chapter 22, and I want you to turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. This is a picture of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Verse seven. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come. Or this just says the marriage of the Lamb has come. And his wife has made herself ready. Verse eight. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Did you see that? We're gonna be clothed at the second coming of Christ with our righteous acts, not the righteousness of Christ. All of that's true. I stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ because I've been made righteous by faith. But at the marriage supper, I am by the way I live, constructing a garment that's gonna be called the wedding garment. And that one is made up of the righteous acts of the saints. So I submit to you that this is a reference to the way Christians live. It's gonna follow them at the marriage supper of the land. One commentator has said, and I quote, we are not here in a court of law standing before a judge. Instead, we're in the palace of the king at a wedding feast. The garment consists not of imputed righteousness of Christ, but of deeds suitable to qualify us to participate in the king's banquet, end of quote. All right. Number one, we're dealing with a believer. Number two, he does not have a lot of righteous acts to his credit. What happens to him? He didn't live a righteous life. He lived an unrighteous life. So what happens to him? Well, let's go back to Matthew chapter 22. And look at verse 12. The king says, how did you get here without a wedding garment? The nerve that you would come to the banquet of my son, not appropriately attired. And the fellow was speechless. And the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that's our problem. It's that little phrase that causes everybody to say this is an unbeliever. Because isn't outer darkness a reference to hell? Isn't the weeping and gnashing of teeth a description of hell? And the answer is, in other passages, as in 2 Peter and Jude, darkness is said to be true of hell. But, not necessarily so. This phrase occurs three times, that is, outer darkness occurs three times in the New Testament. All in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew chapter eight, we looked at it. It's here again in Matthew chapter 22, and it's gonna come up a few chapters later. As I pointed out, the phrase outer darkness should be translated the darkness outside. So that the picture here is of a banquet hall, and it's at night, and it's lit. And because the guy didn't have on the proper attire, the king says, put him out there. Now he's still in the kingdom, but he's outside looking in. Now what, we gotta untangle all of this and figure out what these various things represent. What does the kingdom represent? What does the feast represent? The kingdom, I should say it that way. All right, what is it gonna happen in the kingdom? It's a wedding feast, it's a time of joy. Remember the quote I gave from Martin Luther, he saw it very clearly. Well then what's this describing? Great grief. Great grief. And I think that's exactly what's happening. The binding them hand and foot indicates they're gonna be restricted somehow in the kingdom. or at least at the wedding feast. And there's gonna be weeping as they stand outside looking at those who enter into the joy of the Lord at the banquet. They're gonna look at this and weep. Let me tell you, there's gonna be a lot of weeping when the Lord comes back. That's why the book of Revelation says he wipes away tears, because there's a lot of weeping. I think a lot of us are gonna have deep regrets at decisions we've made, things we've said, the way we've acted, and the way we lived our lives. And we're gonna stand at the banquet and weep as we look at those who followed the Lord and lived godly lives. We are gonna be embarrassed and we're gonna grieve. First John says, little children, abide in him. that when he appears, you might not be ashamed at his coming. I think in our more honest moments, we would have to say, we're gonna be ashamed when he comes. So, this is talking about a believer who's going to regret the way he lived his life. Someone has said, This is grief experienced by a true Christian over a wasted life. Another has said, there is no suggestion here of punishment or torment. The presence of remorse and the form of weeping and gnashing of teeth does not in any way require that inference. Indeed, what we actually see is the image itself is a man who's distraught. on the darkened grounds of the king's private estate, while the banquet hall glows with light and reverberates with the joy of those inside. That is what we see, and that is all, but that is enough. We do not need to embellish the parable with the colors of eternal damnation. There is no fire and brimstone on the king's estate, no worms of corruption creeping out from under the boulders on his well-kept grounds, end of quote. In other words, to say it symbolically, the way we live our lives, for some, is gonna mean that we're gonna attend the wedding banquet and not be appropriately attired. Have you ever been someplace and you weren't appropriately attired? You ever had that experience? I had it last week. I've been a Dodger fan since the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. Now, I'm a fair weather fan, actually, but I do enjoy the Dodgers, and once in a while I get to go to a game. Last week, somebody took us, Patricia and I, to a Dodger game. And we had ground level seats. They were expensive. It was a gift. I've been to Dodger games many times, but I never bought those seats. I was stunned. I was stunned. I mean, everybody around me looked like they were part of the Dodger team. I'm talking about infants, where baseball caps, baseball shirts, baseball shoes, everything. I mean, at one place, there was a little cluster, and they all had on these shirts with the numbers on the back and the name of the player. And I said to Patricia, that's the team. It wasn't a team at all. Everybody was dressed like a Dodger, but me? I thought, they're going to ask us to leave. I felt so inappropriately dressed, and I'm a fan. That's what I think this passage is talking about. I think at the marriage supper, which I have in the past likened to an awards banquet, some are going to be inappropriately attired. Now what I'd like to do is sum this up and make a couple of observations. The sum is simple. Some invited to the banquet don't come. At all, they are destroyed. And of those that do accept the invitation, some arrive inappropriately attired. I wanna make a couple of observations, and I don't have time to develop all this, but I began by saying we're gonna break in in the middle of a sermon. This is the last third of the sermon. I need to just say that this is part of a long discourse. I've chosen to break it up. The original question was who is Jesus? By what authority does he do all of this? Each of these parables indirectly answers that question. It begins with he is who John the Baptist said he was. He's the Messiah. But it goes on to say, that he's the son of the father, and in this parable, the son of the king. Secondly, I should say that this is part of an overall discourse, and that these parables answer a second question. Jesus went beyond their question about Who's your authority or what is your authority? And he talks about them and he talks about their rejection. And if we had time, we could go back through these passages and we could see what is the result of rejection. In a word, it is that they will be destroyed and their city will be destroyed. And the second result is that the kingdom will be given to others. I've pointed that out as we've looked at each of these three parables. But the third observation I'd like to make is this. This parable is the most surprising of all, because it goes even a step further and says, all right, I've told you who I am. I've told you some are gonna reject me. I'm also gonna go a step further and tell you there are some who will accept the kingdom offer, but they're gonna arrive at the wedding feast ill-clad, inappropriately attired, and the result is they're gonna be in anguish of soul. They're gonna grind their teeth and say, oh, I wish I had. They're gonna see the life they lived and said, oh, that I had spent more time developing a righteous, godly life. Oh, what a shame. They're gonna look at their attire and see that they're inappropriately clothed. This occasion was nothing more than a minister's council meeting. A coat and tie was not required. Consequently, often even pastors came and a shirt sleeve. But on this particular occasion, we were having an internationally known dignitary speak to us. Because I was serving as president, I showed up in a coat and tie. But on that particular day, there was a new member of the council. He had recently accepted a church in our region, and he had never been to a minister's council meeting before. Apparently somebody had told him that it was perfectly appropriate on normal occasions to come in a sports shirt, and he did. When he arrived, someone introduced him to me as the president of the minister's council, and he immediately started to apologize. He felt so embarrassed that here we were having this dignitary Here we're all dressed in coat and tie, and here he had on a sport shirt. And I looked at him and said, don't worry about it. At least you're not dressed like him. And I pointed to a pastor who's a dear friend of mine, who comes to minister's councils all the time. He knew there was gonna be a dignitary at the meeting. and he came dressed in Bermuda shorts. I submit to you that at the kingdom banquet, there's some that are gonna be dressed in appropriate attire, whatever that means, and others are gonna be dressed in sport shirts, and some are gonna be dressed in a bikini. they're not gonna have much to put on because they didn't have many righteous acts. Now, we didn't kick out the guy in the sports shirt or the guy in the Bermuda shorts. They stayed, they sat, they enjoyed the meeting. But in the case, but in the case of the kingdom, Those not appropriately attired are gonna be ushered outside and they're gonna be out in the dark side of the king's estate looking in at the lit banquet and the joy that is inside. Jesus is gonna say to those in the banquet hall, come, well done, thy good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. And to those outside, looking in, regretting that they wasted their life, there's gonna be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I have been inappropriately attired on an occasion, and I was actually asked to leave. Have you ever seen the sign on a restaurant that says no shirt, no shoes, no service? That's what I'm trying to tell you. No shirt, no shoes, no service. No shirt, no suit, no joy. When I was in college, some buddies of mine and I were going someplace, I forgot where, but what I remember is that we passed a big tent where a rather well-known faith healer was preaching. And just out of curiosity, we stopped the car, parked it, got out, and went and stood at the back of the tent just to peek in this tent and see what was going on. And we had on shorts, and they asked us to leave. And I remember thinking, oh, how embarrassing. I mean, publicly, would you guys, you're not clothed properly, it was a really strict religious group, and would you just leave? And I didn't feel part of the group. What would it have been like if I'd have felt like part of the group? I tell ya, there's going to be tears because we wasted our life on nothing of eternal value. Somebody has said, if you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any home better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord's table, any person better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven, take alarm. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that every once in a while you pull back the curtain and show us the future to motivate us. And Father, my prayer is that that will be the effect of this curtain call. It'll be a wake-up call. We'll see what you've told us the future is gonna be like. Live in the present accordingly. In Jesus' name, amen.