I will just tell you right now that this is going to be the outline for the next three messages that I'm going to preach here at Ennerdale. This is the Ennerdale Road Baptist Church Members' Covenant. And it looks very similar to what some of you have already received, but there are some differences. Ennerdale has existed, as you know, in one form or another since the year 1912. It's a long history. Think of the number of churches that have been planted and have even died in our city in that time. Since 1912. The covenant that Ennerdale adopted from the very beginning is a covenant that is used in many Baptist churches and many other churches as well. It's a covenant that is very traditional. What's different in what you hold in your hands is that I went back through this and I wanted to see, is this a biblical covenant is what we have in our hands rooted in scripture. I always want to know why I'm doing what I'm doing. If you're a member, you have pledged that you're going to engage to do this. And that's one reason, which is enough of a reason for you to do this. But even deeper than that, I want to see, is this anchored, rooted in Scripture? And so this was, among other things, my Bible study and my sermon prep this week, to see where this is anchored in Scripture. And I have found that with one possible exception, this is anchored and rooted in Scripture. We'll get to that in a little bit. I want to read at the outset the entirety of this covenant. This will remind you, brothers and sisters, who have become members that you promised to do this. And this will engage, or this will be of interest to those of you who have told me that you may wish to become members, that this is what you are signing on for. So in a sense, this is for members, remember what you promised, for potential members, This is what you are considering. So let me read through this. Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, we do now solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ. We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort, to promote its prosperity and spirituality, to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of its ministry and general expenses, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel among all nations. We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions, to religiously educate our children, to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances, to walk circumspectly in the world, and to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment, to avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger, to abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks. We further engage to watch over each other in brotherly love, to remember each other in prayer, to aid each other in sickness and distress, to cultivate Christian sympathy and feeling and courtesy, to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior, to secure it without delay. We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, when we remove from this place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word. This is what you signed up for. This is what some of you may soon, God being gracious, sign up for. Now even as we encounter this, we come across a word that isn't used that often in our society. It's the word covenant. We're more likely to hear the word contract or agreement. A covenant is a binding agreement. The word is not used much in our society, but there still are some times where we encounter it. One such One such place where you might hear this or circumstance you might hear this is in a wedding ceremony as people enter into covenant together. No doubt everyone in here has been to a wedding and heard the vows and agreements of the bride and groom that they've made to each other. And it would be very awkward and even relationship breaking If the bride or the groom were to be asked if they would say, I will, or I do, and they say, no, I don't agree to that, that would break the relationship, no doubt. That would be extremely awkward. As we come to this agreement, I remind you, brothers and sisters who have become members, that this is what you have agreed to. This is what you have covenanted together with other brothers and sisters here to do. It would be an awkward thing if someone were to say, no, I won't do that. And it would be a relationship-breaking thing, not in the sense that we would cut off fellowship, but if someone were to present themselves for membership and yet say, I have no intention of living out the covenant, we would say, You are welcome to attend here, but we cannot enter into covenant together as members together of this church. Covenant begins, having been led, we believe by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and on the profession of our faith. You can look up all of the relevant references that relate to that opening statement, Romans chapter five, verse five. Romans 8, 14, 10, 9-10, John 3, 8. And having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Matthew 28, 19, we do now solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant to get with one another as one body in Christ. I wonder how seriously we have considered this in the past. And I ask this of all of us. I wonder how seriously we have taken this covenant that we all agreed to. I think that perhaps this agreement has become something like the agreement on the latest edition of Microsoft Windows. We kind of scroll down to the bottom of it without reading it and click OK so we can get on with the rest of things. Unfortunately, that isn't a great approach when it comes to a church covenant. It may help you get on with your day when you're trying to fight with your computer, but it's not great when you're trying to get on with your life in covenant together with other brothers and sisters. And so, I think it's important that we truly consider this agreement and see that it is meaningful. that it ought to be meaningful and that it should be taken seriously. Now, if you look at our covenant, it's divided roughly into three sections. The first section deals with the church as an organization or an institution, the church gathered, if you will. What it is that we come together and do in the services and the ministries of this church. The second section of this covenant has to do with our individual personal walk with God, our family walk with God, and our testimony before the world. And the last section deals with our interaction with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we have lots of ground to cover because I want to show you that this is a biblical covenant, that this is rooted and grounded in scripture. And so I'm breaking this into three messages rather than trying to do it all in one today. So today we're going to think about what we agree to as it relates to this church as an organization, the church gathered, the church ministries, What are we agreeing to? So let's jump right in. This begins by saying we engage. Now the meaning of this word engage, again, we don't use that often, but the word in context here has the idea of entering into agreement and covenant. It's formal language. We enter into agreement and covenant. There also is something of a note of intentionality behind it. I would say it's stronger than this, but it's this kind of language we promise to endeavor, or we promise to attempt to do this. As we look at all of these, I think that every single one of us will feel ourselves convicted at heart if we are taking our own walk seriously. Not that that gives us an excuse for breaking our promises, but I think it's a reminder that this sets forth the direction for us. And we should strive for perfection, but this side of heaven, we're not going to reach it. But this should be the direction that we're going. This is the direction that we are agreeing. It says that we engage or we enter into agreement and covenant. We solemnly promise to endeavor to do this by the aid of the Holy Spirit. The great truth of all of this is that the Spirit is in us if we are God's people. He is among us if we are God's church. And the power of the Spirit He is willing to engage to help us as we attempt to live out the truth that we're going to talk about here. So the covenant begins right off the bat by saying that we engage by the aid or the help of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love. Now we read just a moment ago, and I'll point it out to you once again, just how important love is. In Colossians chapter three, Paul says, above all of these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. the bond that holds it all together. This theme of love is very, very vital when it comes to everything that we do. And that is why the covenant begins with this. In fact, Ephesians chapter five, verses one and two, Paul says, therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. As if that were not clear enough, Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16, 14, let all that you do be done in love. And so it's important, it's even right that the covenant begins on this note. If everything that we do is to be done in love, let's start at that point. We engage, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love. This is the message, 1 John 3, 11, that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. It's important that we understand what this word love means. And some of you, far too few of you unfortunately, but some of you were here for the recent series on precious remedies against Satan's devices as we thought about how Satan attempts to attack the church and how we stand against such attacks. One of the remedies that Bridges proposes is that we actually remember and focus on those commands to love one another. Sorry, Brooks. I said Bridges. Brooks focuses us on remembering the commands of scripture to love one another. And if you were here for that, you remember that I pointed out that love is not just a warm, vague, fuzzy feeling. It's not a commitment to be vaguely nice to one another. That's kind of what the going perception is in the world and even among Christians. That love means being vaguely nice to one another. Love, as you look in scripture, is an active commitment to what is best for someone else. That is, at heart, what love is. And so when we think about walking together in Christian love, we're thinking about this commitment to one another for one another's best. I wonder, brothers and sisters, if we are walking together in Christian love. if we are actively longing for, looking for, and helping one another toward what is best. But the covenant continues, not only to walk together in Christian love, but to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort. Now we understand that we long for the advancement of all of God's work everywhere to go forward. We understand that. But as we are a part of this body, this church, we should be longing for the advancement of this church in its ministry. So long as this church stays faithful to the truth, we should be longing for the advance of this church, this ministry. The covenant sets forth three areas, knowledge, holiness, and comfort. So knowledge is us and our understanding of what is true, what is false, that's knowledge. Holiness is of course connected with knowledge, but holiness is our own walk of faith, our own walk of obedience. That we are obedient in doctrine, but also in our walk. what we're doing. But remember that we are striving for the advancement of this church in knowledge, that we want the church to grow deeper in its knowledge, that the church would be more holy. We'll think more about our individual strivings in a moment, but well, actually in a couple of weeks, but knowledge, holiness, and comfort. comfort. What does this have to do with it? It seems like a strange thing to bring up in the covenant at this point. Does it mean that we should have nicer pews? I mean, we have pretty comfortable pews, but we don't have padding on the backs of the pews. So maybe it's talking about that kind of comfort. Maybe it's saying that, you know, things should be, you know, even more pleasant for everyone. We should have nice, calming music as you come in. And that's not the kind of comfort. The kind of comfort that is being spoken of here is the kind of comfort where we ourselves are resting together in the truth. And we are encouraging one another in the truth. That in times of difficulty, we draw near to one another. That the church finds itself strengthened, resting upon God's promises. So, let's look at some passages. Galatians chapter five, verses 13 to 14. But for you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, that's holiness, but through love serve one another, holiness. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Hebrews chapter three in verse 13 says, exhort one another daily. while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." This idea of stirring ourselves up together in our walk. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. So I wonder if we are striving for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort. The third thing that we are promising and pledging in this is to promote its prosperity and its spirituality. 1 John chapter three, 1 John, I'm sorry, 3 John verse two. I think expresses the attitude of both a desire for spiritual health as well as physical health. John speaks to a man called Gaius and he says, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. One of the ways that we promote the prosperity of this church is through our giving. Now these bleed at the edges, I understand that. There's an interconnectedness with all of these things that we pledge to do. But one of the ways that we do promote the prosperity of this church is through our giving. Now we understand that not everyone has the same ability to give. And we also understand that giving is a touchy subject. Back in the day when Pastor Daniel and I were working together, we would always joke about what topics that we would hand off to one another. And I told him that he could speak on marriage and divorce, and he told me I could speak on giving. You know, nice little division of labor here, these very popular topics. It's not a popular topic, but there's a baseline that runs through scripture Jesus said it this way, Matthew 6, 21, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It is no great wonder that if no one sacrifices and gives to the work of the ministry, that their heart is not engaged in that ministry. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So brothers and sisters, I'm not here standing you have to pledge a certain amount today to give to this church. I'm just saying that as fellow members, we have agreed together that we are going to promote the prosperity and spirituality of this church. Of course, As I say, these things are interconnected, and so as we come to point four, it's definitely connected to point three, and that is connected to point two. But point four says to sustain, as we've laid it out, point four is to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. Now let's work our way through this, First of all, to sustain its worship. We're talking about here, our gatherings together. That's our worship. Now what I'm about to say may not be particularly popular, but I'm just gonna say it anyways because this is where we're at. There are many churches that only have one service a week. And there are many good churches that have only one service a week, okay? I am not here to knock those churches. But Ennerdale is not one of those churches. Anyone coming to this church knows that our schedule is we have a morning service, an evening service, and we have a midweek prayer meeting. Those are our gatherings of worship. We don't hide that. It's not found somewhere in the fine print, you know, somewhere in some file downstairs. This is not a hidden thing. We have a morning service and evening service and a midweek service. Those are our times of worship. Now we have reasons why we have both morning and evening. You might not agree with those reasons. Some of the reasons we have both morning and evening is that morning and evening allow us to begin and end the Lord's day with the Lord's people in the Lord's worship. One of the reasons why we have an evening service is because it allows us a fuller opportunity to explore God's truth. You know that it's been my practice if I'm preaching through a series in the Old Testament in the morning, The evening is gonna be the New Testament and vice versa. So it gives us a more well-rounded diet. Furthermore, it is another opportunity for fellowship and mutual edification. If we only see each other once a week, it's very difficult to fulfill the one another commands that are found throughout scripture. It's another opportunity to praise and worship God. Now, these are principles, not hard and fast commands. You're not gonna find anywhere in scripture where you're commanded to have a morning and evening service. That's not a command in scripture. However, brothers and sisters, that's Ennerdale. This is our worship. Morning and evening worship services. I know that some of you have come from areas where you were in church five or six times a week. And yet, somehow, here it becomes once a week. Or maybe three times a month. Now listen, if an evening service is too difficult for you to make, that's understandable. But I wonder where we set the bar for that. In times gone by, churches would say that we promise to be together at our worship services unless providentially hindered. Now what does that weird expression mean, providentially hindered? It means that there are circumstances that are beyond our control that keep us from being able to attend. providentially hindered. You and I both know, when it comes to any discipline, that once we give ourselves an excuse, it's easier to make another one. If you decide you're going to change things up in your diet, I'm not going to eat fill-in-the-blank, whatever it is. I'm not going to eat not gonna eat carbs, not gonna eat whatever. You fill in the blank. But then you start to make exceptions. Well, you know, once a week isn't that bad. Well, if you stay by that, it probably isn't. But if you've made the commitment, I'm going to do this, and then you make an allowance for once a week, you and I both know it's not that long before once a week becomes maybe twice a week. when there's something really, really nice in front of you. And it's not long before once a week becomes, I'll make an exception on any day of the week that ends in Y, right? And I wonder what happens to us. Maybe there's a time where we looked at this church and our gathered worship together and we're like, okay, this is vital, this is important, this is us, this is what we have agreed to. But over time, Maybe, ah, I'm feeling a little bit tired this evening. Well, there are degrees of tiredness, and I understand that. Sometimes there is debilitating tiredness, but I wonder if it is the kind of tiredness that we're excusing, well, you know, I gotta sleep because there's a game on later today that I wanna catch. It's very difficult to sustain the worship in the church if you're not engaged in the worship in the church. You don't have to be a member at Ennerdale. What I'm saying is that if you're a member, you have engaged, you have committed yourself to this. Perhaps in looking at this and thinking about this, you're like, you know what, I don't know that that's something that I would sustain my commitment to. You're welcome here as an adherent. We would rejoice to have you as an adherent. But I think that it also may be wise to consider that there may be other good churches that don't have such a plethora of services. That maybe, maybe you could consider your commitment to those churches. I do think that church membership, and I'm not gonna go into the whole thing, but I do think that church membership is an important thing. I think it's a biblical thing. There are times in scripture where it speaks of the majority within a congregation that votes. How do you know if something's a majority unless you know how many total you have? You have people referred to by number within the church. You have people added to the church in terms of numbers. I understand that there is such a thing. as people being added to the church in the roles of heaven. But on earth, there seems to be, as you read through the book of Acts and the epistles, there seems to be an ongoing register of those who are members. So what I'm saying here then is that if this church is not a church where you can be engaged, it's good for you to be a member somewhere. I'm not trying to sweep people out the door. That's not my intention. My intention is to say, Here's what we agree to. And if this is not what you can agree to, praise the Lord. We're in a city where there's great churches that have differing levels of numbers of services. And you could in good conscience be a part of those churches. And I would rejoice to know that you're worshiping together with brothers and sisters in spirit and in truth. So, Now, all the air is out of the building. To sustain its worship, its ordinances. What are the ordinances? Well, the ordinances that we have in our Baptist churches are the Lord's Table and baptism. How can I help to sustain those ordinances? Well, one way you can help to sustain those ordinances, and it's been all too infrequent, but we have not had a lot of baptism services. But when we have a baptism service, we announce it ahead of time. How can you sustain that? How can you be a part of that? You attend that service. You rejoice in that person that's taken that step of faith. You rejoice in their public commitment to Christ. That's a way that you can sustain the ordinance of baptism. Another way you can sustain the ordinance of baptism is that if you know that there's a believer here in the church that has not yet taken that step of baptism, you can encourage that believer to take that step. What about the ordinance of the Lord's table? Ordinance of the Lord's table has come. Come to the table with us. I occasionally, I haven't had as much time to recently, but I occasionally watch other services in other churches. And one of my favorite churches that I like to watch their services is actually a service in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. And they have the Lord's Table at the beginning of their worship service. Now why do they do that? They do that because they don't want the Lord's table service to be like an extra unnecessary part that you can drop or add. When you look in the New Testament, the New Testament doesn't tell us how often we have to have the Lord's table. Here at Ennerdale, we have it twice a month. There is good evidence that the early church had the Lord's table every single week. And there are some churches today that do that, that have the Lord's Table every single week. We take the Lord's Table seriously, as we should. But here's my appeal to you. If you're kind of, I don't know if I should attend the Lord's Table service. Number one, if you're a member, you should. You say, well, I'm wondering, there's something not right with me and God. Hey, just repent. Repent and come to the table. Remember his sacrifice together. Proclaim the Lord's death with us. Anticipate the Lord's return with us as we show his death till he comes. So sustain its ordinances. Sustain its discipline. We haven't had to have a formal process of discipline here at Ennerdale for some time. Though some of you might remember in times gone by, one of our dear members and a deacon at the time needed to step down. We, as a church that takes holiness seriously, we saw this earlier, should also take discipline seriously. That if there are those who are walking in patterns of unconfessed sin, that they're unwilling to confess and forsake, that those things need to be dealt with. That's part of church discipline. Now, that is something that we will talk about again later in this series. I'll go into a little bit more detail on that. There is a process that our Lord set out, and we'll think about that as we think about how we relate to one another a little bit later, but to sustain its discipline and to sustain its doctrines. So we have, as our statement of faith, we have a doctrinal statement that is in line with the fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada. There are some things about that statement of faith that are true of all believers, and must be true of all believers. That if a person does not believe those things, they're not actually a believer. But there are other things within that document, as we narrow things down, that are true of Baptist churches. Now, a person might come to our church. In fact, I'm thinking of someone right now that came to this church and took their spiritual life very seriously and actually was thinking ahead to when she was going to get married and thinking about, well, I'm actually from a more reformed background and I believe in infant baptism. I don't know if I could continue to be involved in this church. If that's my perspective, and she actually, with my blessing, though not my agreement on her theology, with my blessing, left and went to another church because she took her spiritual life that seriously. Because there are things about this church that you agree to, which are specific of Baptist churches. So there are things in our doctrinal statement that if you deny them, you're outside the boundaries of true Christianity. But not everything in our doctrinal statement is fitting in that category. There are some things in a narrower circle that have to do with what Baptists in particular believe. And then there are things even within that circle, to draw things a little bit more narrowly, that have to do with a common agreement among those churches that form the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada. And there are some things within that circle that not every Baptist is going to agree with. And you might look at the doctrinal statement of the church and you might say, hey, there's 90% of this stuff I agree with, I'm not sure about 5% of it, and there's this other 5% that I'm not sure that I agree with. Depending on which circle that's in, you could be a good Christian who is walking close to the Lord and there's just something that's not quite the same. Do you have to believe everything that every single thing that I believe to be a member of this church? No. Do you have to have a complete understanding of the doctrinal statement of this church to be a member of this church? No. But there is an understanding that within that framework of that doctrinal statement, that if there's something that you come to have a disagreement with, that you can't agree to, that that would be something that you would speak to the church leadership about. And we would try to wrestle through it together. Sometimes it's the way that things are worded. Sometimes it has to do with true doctrinal differences. But we do have a doctrinal statement that we as a church agree upon together. And there are, yes, there are holes in it. There are things that could be stated more precisely. There are things that could be stated more expansively. but that is our doctrinal statement. That's kind of our foundation, our center. And maybe again, if there's things about the doctrinal statement, you're like, I just don't agree with that. I could never agree with that. And maybe it's something that is a Baptist thing, or maybe it's something that is particular to the understanding of the churches like ours. Well, maybe you could in good conscience go to another church that does have a doctrinal statement that you can agree with, okay? and do so with our complete joy and blessing. This is not us trying to be ridiculous and fierce and hard-nosed, and I think that those of you that have discussed doctrinal things with me know that I'm not that kind of person. But as a member of this church, to sustain its worship ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. And then, and we're kind of in a way, see how these things all bleed together. two verses that I've placed here. Hebrews 10 25 speaks of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. It has to do with our commitment to one another. And then Acts 2 42 which is a summary statement of the early church. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and Fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. And so these are foundational. Doctrine, fellowship, there's no fellowship when we are walking at odds with one another, patterns of sin that aren't addressed, that speaks to fellowship and discipline. Doctrine, of course, we understand doctrines. Breaking of bread has to do with ordinances as well as fellowship. And prayers. Fifthly, quickly, to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of its ministry and general expenses, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel among all nations. So, contributing cheerfully and regularly. We can't all contribute the same amount. And we understand that. Sometimes, Things are very tough and you can give only a little. Sometimes things are so tough you can only give yourself and say, hey, listen, I will work, I will help, I will serve. Understand that. But when we are enabled to, we give as we're able. So the support is ministry and general expenses, the relief of the poor. So one of the things that we have done and will be doing again is we have our food drives. We collect food for those that are needy. Is that the only way? Well, no. We also, through some of our missions, contribute for the help of the poor. And we also know of other good organizations that you can connect to. But that's, as far as our help of the poor, we do that through our missions and through the food drives most regularly. There's an opportunity there. And then the spread of the gospel among all nations. So we have, right now, several missionaries and we are looking to add more missionaries this year as far as our regular support. We'll talk about that more. By God's grace, we hope to add a couple more missionaries this year to our regular support. Right now, our most active missionaries, we know, are the Salvateras and the Melgars. And we are contributing for their work of the ministry through our ministry here. Let me read to you a couple of verses from scripture. I know, thank you for your patience with me. I know that this is not, maybe for some of you, the most riveting material that you've ever encountered, but it is what we've signed on for and what some of you perhaps intend to sign on for. First Corinthians chapter nine, verses seven to 14. Paul says, whoever goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit, or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law say the same thing also? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God is concerned about, or does he say it all together for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of those things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Galatians 6 verses 6 to 8 makes that same point, as does 1 Timothy 5 verses 17 and 18. But more broadly speaking, in Hebrews chapter 13 verses 15 to 17, we are admonished this way. Therefore by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share. So this is more than just helping out so that the minister gets paid. This is beyond that. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. John also, and I did not put this reference down and probably should have, John speaks of those who send missionaries on after a godly manner. So preachers of the gospel come, to the people of the church and John says, if you send them on in a manner worthy of God, you do well. And what does that mean? Well, as they were sent on, they were given what they needed for their trip. They were supported. for the work that they had before them. That is what it's talking about. And so, here we have the idea of providing for the ministries of the church, providing for the needs of one another, providing for those who are in need, and providing for the spread of the gospel. Well, my time is gone, brothers and sisters, but you can see that what we have agreed to here is a high and noble standard. And it's a standard that perhaps, as we're looking at, we're saying, how I have failed so many times, how I have fallen short. Every one of us, no doubt, as we look at this, recognize that there are ways and times in which we have fallen short. Our hope, though, brothers and sisters, is not in our perfect obedience to all of this. We have one who has perfectly obeyed all of God's laws, who has fully kept every commitment, the one who is the faithful high priest. Faithful means true to his promises. We have a savior who has succeeded where we have failed. And so I appeal to you to walk in his steps, faithful. to your promises, but I also appeal to you to look to him as that perfect savior who has succeeded where we have failed and rejoice in his perfect record of righteousness on our behalf. Well, we will end there, uh, not next week because I will be away next week where I will