Good morning. How good it is to worship in the house of the Lord together. It's much better than sitting on our couches, isn't it? So much better. Overwhelming. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are so glad to be together again. So glad that I need a box of tissues up here. Lord, you have said that out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. I pray this morning that you would use these lips. I am just a babe, Lord. I do not know very many things, but you are God. Our avenger, our foe, is mighty, but you are mightier. And you have chosen to use weak people, weak vessels, to proclaim the gospel. We pray this morning that it would be heard. In Jesus' name, amen. Those verses that Thad read to us are like bookends. The beginning of the story of the story of redemption of God's people and the end of it, the completion. But yet we know there's still more to come, isn't there? Even though Christ redeemed us on the cross, and he has freed us from sin and death, there is still a rest remaining for the people of God. It is not over. I think, Dick, you were talking about you like to sit on your front porch and watch the storms roll in. I like to do that, too. Have you ever been in a lightning storm or watched a lightning storm and see how it lights up your neighborhood? You're sitting there in the dark and it lights up, it's like the daytime. Or maybe another example is when you're watching a movie, like a scary movie and it's panning across. The lightning strikes and you see something on a wall and you're like, what was that? And then the lightning strikes again and you see it again. It happens again and again. And over time, your mind begins to build a picture of what is happening in the darkness. In Judges 13 through 16, we have one of the brightest and longest bursts of light in the Old Testament. God started his story in Genesis 15 of the Gospel. And over time, through the Old Testament, in that darkness, you see these bursts of light when the story of redemption is revealed to us. Let's go ahead and read Judges 13. It's a long chapter, but hang with me. I'm just gonna read the one chapter, because we don't have time to read the entire story of Samson. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. There was a man, a certain man of Zorah, the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren. and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore, be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite from God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, a man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So drink no wine and strong drink and eat nothing unclean for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, Please let the man of God whom you have sent to us come again to us and teach us what we are to do with a child who will be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah. And the angel of the Lord came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, by the way, later he says, you haven't told us your name. He just told him his name, I am. And Manoah said, now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life, and what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink strong wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her, let her observe. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, if you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name? So that when your words come true, we may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said, why do you ask me my name? Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders. And Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. And the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that his wife, I'm sorry, then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted the burn offering and the grain offering at our hands or shown to us these things or now announced to us each things as these. And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began to stir in him, at Maneha Dan, between Zorah and Ashtiel. If the book of Judges were written as a song, the chorus would go something like this. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And they cried out to God to deliver them. And the Lord heard their cry and he sent a deliverer over and over and over. But Judges 13 is a little different. We don't have any evidence that there was any cry to the Lord. For 40 years, They may have seemed hopeless. They were under the oppression of the Philistines. At any time, at any moment, all their stuff could be ravaged and taken. Their children, their wives, their livestock, anything was at the hand of the Philistines. Merciless people, lawless people. The situation was very bleak. It seemed as if there were very few faithful left among the Israelites. Perhaps they wondered if they were irredeemable. Maybe they wondered if God still cared, if God was still watching. Does this sound familiar at all to you? The slide that we are currently witnessing in our culture today, deeper and deeper into moral depravity, has crept even into the church and into every denomination to the point where, like the Israelites, we might be tempted to lose hope. We might be tempted to think that God is not going to rescue us. Our seminaries have repeatedly caved to the culture and become bastions of false teaching. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, these were all seminaries to train men for the gospel ministry. One after another, they fell. And that pattern has continued. We're tempted to let feelings of hopelessness overwhelm us, as if we're on a rudderless ship. We're just drifting at sea, and we're starting to wonder, where's the captain? Is he asleep? Is he in the middle of the ship asleep? I think the disciples thought that once, didn't they? Has God failed? Is the devil going to win after all? Isaiah answers this with a rhetorical question. Believers have always wondered this, by the way. He says in Isaiah 14, 27, for the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? One time my dad asked me, do you want to clean your room? And I said, is that a rhetorical question? And he said, no. And I said, well, because I don't want to. Anyway, when Isaiah asks this rhetorical question, there is no need for a response. There is no possibility that his hand can be turned back. Job says in chapter 42, I know that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. All right, so what is God's plan? And when did he set it in motion? Did he do it at creation? Did he do it after the flood? Maybe he did it at the Mount Sinai. Ephesians 1.4 tells us when he did it. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and blameless before him. Okay, so when did he reveal his plan? Thad read the verse to us this morning. In Genesis 3, we have both a curse and a promise. When Adam sinned, we have the curse. In Genesis 3, 19, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Romans 5.12, sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. But then we have the promise. Right there in the beginning of world history, he gives Adam and Eve the promise. He says, Eve's offspring should bruise the head of Satan and Satan should bruise his heel. We have a little glimpse. It's the first flash of lightning. It runs through every part of scripture. If you read through the Old Testament, you'll see it. You have to be looking for it, though. If you don't know it's there, you won't see it. I was watching this painter on, I don't remember what show it was, but he got this big canvas up on the stage. He calls himself a speed painter. And he starts slopping all these brush strokes on there, and you don't know what it's doing. And the people in the audience are sitting there going, what is that? And at the end, I think it was like a minute they gave him, he spins the canvas over and it's a portrait of one of the people that's watching. It was unbelievable. That is the same way that God wrote, gave us the Old Testament. It's a little clearer though, because Adam and Eve knew that their Redeemer was coming. In the fullness of time, he sent forth his son. He flipped the canvas over and revealed his son. The place that we are currently in world history isn't random. We're not here by chance. It has a beginning and it has an end, which was planned by God before time began. Like the sun and the moon and the planets and the stars which God set in motion, His plan has continued on its course age after age and nothing can stop it. You have a better chance of stopping the sun in its orbit than you do of God's plan. As much as anyone else, Satan knew that God promised that his head would be crushed. You think he doesn't know that? by the one whom God had sent to crush him. And he knew who was gonna do it. He also knew this one would come through Israel. And all of his guns were pointed at Israel for that reason. But instead of destroying them, what did God do? He sanctified them. He uses God's plan, or Satan's plan to destroy his people. And he sanctifies them. And he makes it clearer who our Redeemer is through it. In our day, Satan is still at war with God's people. Revelation 12 shows us this picture. I'm not going to read it now. We don't have time. I think I read it last time. Since the Reformation and subsequent establishment of this country, the gospel has been freely published and often protected in other parts of the world. Satan has used, over time, against the church, he's used the Caesars, he's used Islam, the Spanish Inquisition, which killed tens of thousands, the French Revolution, communism, and fascism, and perhaps worst of all, humanistic materialism, to silence the gospel. The entire world now stands at another precipice. Do you feel it? I think we all feel it. Satan seems poised to drag us all into the abyss with him. In a previous sermon, I read you a story about the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. I don't know if you remember that, but it was in 1572. By order of the Pope and the King of France, many thousands of French Protestants were brutally murdered. Their blood was flowing in the streets. On that night, the first person that was murdered was named Gaspard de Caligny. He was the admiral of the French fleet, a very important man in France. I told you about him last time, but what I didn't tell you was what the motive was for his murder. Despite what most of us were taught as kids, The pilgrims were not the first Protestants or Bible-believing people to come to the shores of the New World. Gaspard was secretly focused on spreading the biblical gospel to the New World. He had organized an expedition that settled in Brazil. You ever heard of Rio de Janeiro? Originally, that was a French Huguenot settlement. Two years later, they got kicked out by the Portuguese. In 1562, he was the leading patron for the French Protestant colony of Fort Caroline in Florida. You ever heard of that? You probably haven't, because, but you probably have heard of St. Augustine, Florida, haven't you? St. Augustine? That was who the Pope wanted settling in Florida. The Protestants got wiped out. They were all murdered. And when he was murdered, he was planning more colonizations when he got thrown out that window and got beheaded in the street. Ask yourself this question. Was God's plan stopped by Satan's minions? Did he win? Did Rome succeed in preventing Protestants from establishing a beachhead in the new world? No. What Satan keeps forgetting are these precious words of Revelation 12. Now salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb. And how else? By the word of their testimony. The little word that comes forth from our mouths, which is Christ himself. For they loved not their lives, even unto death. The advancement of Christ and his church is not hindered by persecution. It is the exact opposite. Instead, the kingdom advances because of persecution. This is why the church is exploding in China. This is why the church is exploding in Iran. In Saudi Arabia, probably, but we don't know. If not, now it's going to. Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy. Psalm 8-2. As chapter 13 opens and judges, we find two faithful Israelites who were in a sea of unbelief and anxiety with enemies from within Israel and from without of Israel. Manoah and his wife were of the tribe of Dan. They were the most wicked tribe in all of Israel. The Danites were so wicked, in fact, that if you read in the book of Revelation when it names the tribes, there's one conspicuously missing, the tribe of Dan. You might say, well, Manasseh and Ephraim aren't there either, but Joseph is listed, and they are the children of Joseph. Dan was very wicked. The most distinguishing feature of Dan, if you were to visit today where they lived, there is a giant pagan altar that Jerome built. The son of Nebat, Jerome, built this altar to the golden calf in 1 Kings chapter 12. Into this bleak scene, the Lord comes to Manoah's wife personally and without any fanfare. How like the Lord this is. Filled with mercy. He doesn't even wait for them to cry out to him. He's filled with mercy and he has mercy on whomever he wills. Often you hear of people, maybe you're one of them, that have fallen so deeply into sin that they think that they are beyond hope of forgiveness. They say, you don't know what I've done. The Danites were idolaters. They were wicked people. And they were under God's covenant. And yet, the Lord Jesus comes and He rescues them from the Philistines. Would not God also save you from your sin? These things were given to us. This isn't just a history book. It is history. But these are written for our instruction, for our learning in holiness and righteousness, to teach us about God's holiness and his grace. This time he came visibly to a woman who evidently was not very important. What is her name? Does anyone know her name? It's not listed. In the world's eyes, she's nothing. But the Lord comes to her individually. He knows her. He knows where she is. I don't know where people are. I need to call them and find out where they are. Jesus shows up and he walks right up to her. He knows exactly where she is. In the deepest, darkest corners of the earth, the deepest, darkest corners of the earth cannot hide us from the eye of God. Some of you might be familiar with Carl Sagan's old videos that he put out in the 60s and 70s, how he would talk about we are on this tiny blue speck floating in nothingness, you know, trying to make it look like we are so insignificant. Well, if it weren't for God, we would be, right? we would be insignificant. But think of this. Think of it the other way around. Here's what the word of God says. He says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. Look at it the other way. Look at the heavens. Do you know where the end of the heavens are? I don't. That is as far away as, that's the end of God's love for us. Do you understand what I'm saying? Do you understand what the word of God is telling you? He doesn't simply know where she is, though. He knows her grief. He knows that she's barren. Imagine what mockery she probably endured. In the tribe of Dan, I doubt there are very many people that were actually believers. And when you're amongst people like that, they love to mock because they know that they're guilty. And so mockery makes them feel better about their sin. And I'm sure, it doesn't say that in the word here, but I'm guessing she probably endured that. If you're so holy, why doesn't God give you children? God was testing her and he was using her pain for his glory and for our benefit. Now we can look at the story and be comforted that our Redeemer and who he is, The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. Psalm 34, 15. The Lord gives her a promise that she will bear a son, but not just any son. Her son would deliver Israel from their oppressors. Just when the darkness seemed impenetrable, impossible to overcome, the Lord sends his deliverer. How like God that is. We're in a situation right now in this country as Christians where you feel surrounded. We can't speak the truth without being barraged with mockery. God knows this. God sits in the heavens and he laughs and he will have them in derision. Psalm 2, I have set my king on his throne. No one can move him. A skilled writer is able to weave in foreshadowing as he writes a novel, but God weaves foreshadowing into history. You ever thought about that? This isn't just a storybook. It's recording actual history. God weaved in through history a golden thread showing us Christ all throughout history. Consider this about Samson. His conception was miraculous. He would be a Nazirite. If you're familiar with that, it's in Numbers 6. I'm not going to read it, but essentially it sets them apart from birth to be holy and blameless. Think how different a Nazirite would look. They weren't allowed to cut their hair. They were not allowed to touch anything unclean. They couldn't come near a dead body. So even if a close family member died, they could not come near that body. They were set apart. We're not told that there was anything physically significant about Samson. We kind of think of him as this big muscle-bound guy. If that were the case, why would Delilah ask him, where do you get your strength from? And we see in another part of the story that when he tore the bands off his hands, they melted. That doesn't happen with a muscle-bound guy. That's the Holy Spirit. His strength was from the Lord. And when the Lord left him, he lost his strength. Here's something different. I'm not gonna get too into this, but he could not eat anything from the vine. Nazarites were not allowed to eat even the skins of a grape, even the seeds. They couldn't drink, they couldn't eat that. But when Jesus came, what did they accuse him of? He came eating and drinking. The bridegroom had come. The bridegroom came and he was rejoicing. It was not a time for mourning. But with Samson, Samson is not our ultimate deliverer. He's just a picture. He just gives us a glimpse. Let's be honest. If we were writing the Bible, would we use Samson as an example of Jesus? If we were planning out who would be the type of Christ, we would have chosen someone much different, wouldn't we? He was strong-willed. He was self-confident. He had a weakness for forbidden women. I was reading this story to my kids, and their jaws were dropping as I read it. Go get me a wife! And yet, he is listed in Hebrews 11. When we read Hebrews 11, we think, aren't these supposed to be paragons of virtue? The whole purpose of the book of Hebrews was to teach the Jews that salvation is not through the law. It's by faith. Samson was not saved because he was a virtuous man. He was saved because he trusted his Redeemer. And you can see that at the very end of his life, which we will get to. Consider how meticulous and patient God is in revealing how he would keep his promise. He spent 4,000 years slowly revealing his plan of redemption, little by little, to be perfectly completed in the fullness of time. Since he has kept his promise and purchased us with his own blood, how much more, how much more will he return to take us to be with him? Do you doubt that He's coming back? We are prone to worry. Remember what He said about the last days to the disciples. In 2 Peter 3.9, scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. Following their own sinful desires, they will say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. Notice the word of God created it and destroyed it. But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this fact, this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day, and the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish. There isn't a person in this room that would be Looking forward to heaven today if God had come 200 years ago. But ever since the time began, all of us as believers have longed for the day that he would come. But God is patient. He's going to collect all of his people. It's taken a lot of time, and it may take more time. But he could also come today. We need to be ready. God is patient because he is merciful. But he will keep his promises. Now we've considered Manoah's wife. What about Manoah himself? Many teachers and commentators have a very low opinion of Manoah. And I think this is why, the reason why is because he thought he was a dead man. And when he saw the angel of the Lord going up into heaven, And he didn't recognize the Lord immediately. He wanted the Lord to eat with him. Did you notice that the Lord ate with the disciples but not with Manoah? That's because the Lord had come in his body. He had a real human body. But he was not ready yet. He was not ready to enter into that with man yet, but he would. Is it faithless to fear the only one who has the power to cast you, body and soul, into the lake of fire? Is that faithlessness? This fear is most precious to God. He is rich in mercy. And this fear is the recognition of God's holiness. This is the fear that drives you to him. I once got ridiculed for promoting the fear of God on a blog post. That's okay. That's the fear of God that drove me to find forgiveness in Christ. It's the fear that makes us recognize that we are without hope, without him. There is no one else that can protect us from God's wrath but God himself. He is our only refuge. How do we know that Manoah had this faith in God? First, he believed his wife's testimony about the angel of the Lord. And you might say, okay, well, maybe he believed anything his wife said. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. He believed it because he was a sheep. Next, he prayed that the Lord, he immediately prayed that the Lord would come back and help them. As a parent, Or in any part of your life, do you immediately cry out to the Lord? Or are you compelled to do that? That is a strong evidence that you belong to Him. One of the chief signs of faith is an awareness of our sinful condition. He was aware that he lacked wisdom. So where did he go? Did he go, did he flick on his TV and turn on Dr. Phil? No, he went to the Lord immediately. The Lord is our source of wisdom. I think the most precious thing about Manoah's prayer, his chief concern, which drove him to his knees, was for wisdom. But lastly, God listened to his prayer. He listened to his prayer. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Psalm 34, 17. As Job said, with my own eyes, I will see the Lord. Does that mean that in this life, we'll be free from trouble? No. No. But we're gonna get to that. Have you ever considered that God delights in your prayers? Have you ever thought about that? Sometimes we think, oh, I gotta pray. I forgot to pray. I better get down on my knees again. We're tempted to think that because we're in the flesh and our spirit is urging us to go before the Lord. Consider this verse, the sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Proverbs 15, eight. ESV says acceptable. I read to you the CSV version because it's a better translation. I think all but one of the English translations translate the word as delight or pleasure. God takes delight in the prayer of the saints. Zephaniah 317, the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will quiet you with his love. Sit in the presence of the Lord as we go through this as a nation. Get in His presence. Go to Him in prayer. He will rejoice over you in gladness. You ever think about that? He will quiet you with His love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Sometimes we think loud singing is annoying. God exalts over you with loud singing. God is like a master painter. I'm not a master painter, but I was a painter in school, and I would be real into my painting, and I would sometimes stand back and look at it. And I think God does that with His children. He looks at His work that He has done with pleasure. I recently remodeled our bathroom. and it was a dirty and difficult job. When I tore back the flooring, I realized that there was rot. It was nasty. The toilet had been leaking for 20 some years. But now I hardly think about it. I go in that bathroom and I touch the new flooring with my feet and it feels so good. I don't even think about the back-breaking labor anymore. I think, I mean, literally, every time I look at it, it gives me pleasure. Don't I, Meredith? Yes. And I talk about it every time I go in there. What was once an eyesore in our home is now a delight. That is the sense in which God takes pleasure in the upright. He doesn't take pleasure in you because you are naturally perfect and holy. He takes pleasure in His work. Ephesians 2.10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Second Corinthians 5.17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. You didn't create yourself. God created you twice. There is something else about Samson I didn't mention earlier. And this is the most illuminating part of his life. For a moment, we are given a glimpse of this heavenly ray of light at the end of his life. As he stood, he stood there with his arms outstretched, humiliated by his enemies. They mocked him, whom they thought they had conquered. And he prayed to God and he asked for strength. He prayed a prayer of faith. The deliverer of God's people, in one moment, seems defeated. But in the next, he reached out his arms, crying out to God. He brought down the entire house of their enemies, delivering his people from bondage while giving up his own life. Does that remind you of anyone? We're reminded of another, there's another ray of light in Isaiah 43, 53. For he grew up before him like a tender plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. And yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, not his. He didn't do anything wrong. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Consider the wise words of Manoah's wife, consoling her husband. His wife said to him, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted the grain offering in our hands or shown us all these things or now announced to us such things as these. By faith, she recognized that God's wrath was satisfied in the sacrifice. Just as Christ fulfilled the wrath of God for us, Do you tremble before God? God has provided a deliverer for you, a substitute for the wrath you deserve that is infinitely greater than Samson. Samson's delivery was temporary. It had to be done again and again and again and again. Christ was once and for all. It is finished. His arms were outstretched on the cross as he took the final weight of the wrath of God that you and I deserve for our sins that we have committed. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, taking our place in the courtroom of God's judgment, canceling its legal demands that we might go free. The serpent bruised his head, but in his death, he crushed the head of the serpent. While it's true that we are in stark infested waters right now, we are not on a rudderless ship. The captain of our salvation is faithfully guiding us to the port. We will arrive. His plan of redemption cannot be stopped. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing our enemy can do to stop it. With our own two eyes, we will see our redeemer. And he lives. Jesus told his disciples in this world, you will have tribulation. You will, but take heart. I have overcome the world. He is coming for his bride. Nothing will hold him back. All is going according to his divine plan, which was set in motion before the world began. Psalm 118 verse six, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you that you have given us this eternal hope that our feet are on solid ground. And even if we get scared and if we get terrified, we're still on solid ground. You just need to remind us. We thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for bringing us back, getting our feet out of the mire and putting them on solid ground. We love you, Lord, and we pray that you would keep our eyes on you and we would not look away. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.